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Book^^iS-^ 

DOBELL COLLECTION 



JOU RN AL./£^ 



THROUGH 

HANOVER, WESTPHALIA, 

AND THE 

NETHERLANDS. 

IN JULY AND AUGUST, 1818. 



By henry lewis STUTZER. 



LONDON 



1819. 



* HQ 



205449 
J 13 



MARCHANT, Printer, 

Ingram-Courtj London- 



TO THOSE 



FROM WHOM I HAVE RECEIVED 



PROOFS OF FRIENDSHIP, OR GOOD-WILL, 



I DEDICATE THIS WORK. 



THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. I. 

Departure from London, — Arrival at Cux- 
haven,— Journey to Hanover , . ... . o.. . . . ♦ . 1 

CHAP. II. 

Hanover and its Environs, — Excursion to the 
Deister-Hills • 48 

CHAP. III. 

Journey from Hanover through Westphalia. • 111 
CHAP. IV. 

Journey from the Rhine to Brussels 144 

CHAP. V. 

Brussels,— Excursion to Waterloo . . 171 

CHAP. VI. 

Return to England ...^ . ........ 201 



A 

JOURNAL, 



CHAPTER I. 

DEPARTURE FROM LONDON,— ARRIVAL AT 
CUXHAVEN,— JOURNEY TO HANOVER. 

We took leave of our friends, in one 
of the suburbs of London, on the even- 
ing of the 10th July, 1818, and went to 
the Spread-Eagle, Gracechurch-street, 
hoping that we might enjoy a few hours 
sleep, previous to the commencement of 

B 



2 



our journey ; but the noise caused by the 
ostlers, the arrival of carriages, and a 
person in the coffee-room, in a complete 
state of intoxication, was so great and 
incessant, that our eyes were shut only 
for a few minutes. We were called at 
two o'clock, and shortly after mounted the 
roof of a coach, which conveyed the 
mails for Germany and Holland to Har- 
wich, and bade farewell to the metro- 
polis of England. 

The morning, though cloudy, was beau- 
tiful ; we were but little incommoded by 
dust, for some slight showers of rain had 
fallen during the night, particularly in the 
neighbourhood of Colchester, of which 
the husbandman was everywhere availing 
himself, and Essex never appeared to 
greater advantage. The orchards were 
abounding with fruit, and the finest fields 
of wheat were nearly fit for the sickle. It 



3 



was fifteen years since I had last travelled 
the same road, and I thought I perceived 
great improvement in the outward appear- 
ance of the country. There were cer- 
tainly many more new houses in the towns 
and villages, and the hedges and fences 
bore marks of greater attention, a proof 
of increasing prosperity. We arrived at 
the White-Hart-Inn, Harwich, about one 
o'clock, and, having transacted our busi- 
ness at the Custom-house, where we 
were treated with civility by the officers, 
sat down to a comfortable dinner with 
half-a-dozen other travellers. At four 
o'clock we paid our bill, and went to- 
wards the harbour. For Cuxhaven ! for 
Holland ! vociferated by some of the 
crew of the packets, soon collected the 
respective travellers in the Custom-house- 
boats, which were to conduct them to 
their vessels. Thus, at half-past four 

b2 



4 



o'clock, my young friend and I found 
ourselves on board the Beaufoy Post- 
office-packet, commanded by Captain 
Norris. 

The number of passengers amounted to 
eleven, one of whom was a young English 
lady, going, with her husband, a German, 
to Hambm'g, their usual place of resi- 
dence. Our captain had not lately been 
favoured with so much company, and ap- 
peared, therefore, very glad to see us. 
We had but little wind from the south, 
and a considerable time was spent in 
rounding Land guard- fort ; nevertheless, 
the variety of scenery produced by this low, 
sandy point, with the fort and martello 
towers on one side, and the town of Har- 
wich and its citadel on the other ; and, 
above all, that serenity and quiet, which 
attend a passage by sea, was to us highly 
gratifying, and we did not in the least re- 



5 



gret the slowness of our progress. The 
evening being remarkably fine and warm, 
I kept on deck till ten o'clock. The 
coast of Suffolk was constantly in our 
view. 

I rose early next morning, very much 
refreshed by a sound sleep. It had been 
raining since three A.M. At nine o'clock 
the weather cleared up, and most of the 
company went on deck. Very little way 
had been made during the night, for we 
were only ten leagues from Harwich ; but 
no land was visible. Breakfast was now 
announced, consisting of tea, coffee, 
eggs, boiled beef, and lobsters, on which 
we feasted with a good appetite. The 
interval between breakfast and dinner 
was chiefly occupied in walking on deck, 
and partly in calculating the time it would 
take to arrive at Cuxhaven, and the result 
already began to excite lamentations. 



6 



We met several brigs bound for England, 
and now and then saw a sea-bird or two. 
At two P.M. we were but fifty miles 
from Harwich. This was our dinner-hour, 
and we sat down to beef-broth, mullet, 
and lamb ; and passed the time over our 
port and claret very agreeably till four 
o'clock, when we again went on deck. 
The weather was hot and delightful, but 
the wind died so completely away, that we 
appeared to stand still, and the surface of 
the sea was as smooth as glass. While thus 
becalmed, we observed, about six o'clock, 
that the water, at a short distance from 
us, became suddenly ruffled, though not 
a breath of air was stirring, and soon 
found that it was occasioned by a shoal of 
young herrings ; they were playing on the 
surface, and the rays of the sun reflecting 
on their silvery coat, as they jumped out 
of the water, rendered the sight very 



7 



amusing ; they were attended by a num- 
ber of sea-birds watching for their prey. 
As the day declined I enjoyed^the magnifi- 
cent spectacle of the setting sun : what 
can be more grand and sublime ! How 
could so many of my companions prefer 
the close air of a small cabin to such a 
scene as the setting of the sun in one part 
of the horizon, and the rising of the 
moon in another ! Next morning, the thir- 
teenth, I arose before daylight, and, as 
usual, passed my time on deck. A slight 
breeze from the N. W. had sprung up in the 
night, and we were now going at the rate 
of from three to four knots an hour. To- 
wards noon the wind freshened, and, at 
half past one, we were seven leagues 
off the Texel, in about sixteen fathoms 
water of a deep blackish green. Land 
was visible from the mast-head. As night 
approached the wind veered round to the 



8 



S.E. blowing fresh, about six knots. 
Symptoms of sea-sickness, with its dis- 
tressing effects, now became manifest; 
but, myself, and my young friend, kept per- 
fectly free from it. The following night 
was very comfortless ; the wind had shift- 
ed to the north, blowing hard, and se- 
veral of the company were extremely ill, 
particularly the young lady, who, fancy- 
ing the vessel was every moment going 
down, was crying and calling out for her 
husband. Tired with what I saw and 
heard below, and the dawn of the morn- 
ing beginning to appear, I stepped on 
deck, but was, at that instant, saluted with 
a tremendous wave, which dashed over 
me and the deck, and would have knock- 
ed me down, had I not fortunately seized 
part of the rigging ; the sea was, indeed, 
running very high, for the wind blew 
strong from the north, and we were al- 



9 



ready getting into shallow water. At six 
we passed Heligoland, about three miles 
north. It was too hazy to perceive the 
town, but I could clearly distinguish 
the outline of this remarkable rock, 
which is distant about forty miles from the 
Hanoverian coast. At nine o'clock we 
could see the light-house, and some of 
the buildings of Bake, a village on New- 
wark, a low sandy island at the mouth of 
the Elbe, gained from the sea; and, at 
eleven A.M. of Tuesday, the 14th of July, 
were safe in the wooden harbour of Cux- 
haven, having run a distance of three 
hundred and twenty miles in about sixty- 
eight hours. 

Our vessel was hardly fastened to the 
shore, on which a considerable number 
of persons, many of whom well-dressed, 
were assembled to witness our arrival, 
when the deck was thronged with people, 

b3 



10 



some requesting the honor of our com- 
pany at their masters' hotels ; others to 
carry our baggage, or offering their boats 
for a passage up the river to Hamburg 
or Altona. Being a perfect stranger in 
the place, we went to an inn recom- 
mended to us by the young lady, our late 
fellow-traveller, on account of the obliging 
disposition of its hostess, and her mode- 
rate charges ; and, having bid farewell to 
our late companions, engaged a man to 
take care of our luggage, consisting of 
two small leather trunks and a basket, the 
whole weight not exceeding an hundred 
pounds. We were, therefore, greatly 
surprised, on turning round, as we walked 
towards Ritzbuttel, to see so slight a 
burden resting on the shoulders of three 
athletic men, though one might have 
carried it with great ease, and, I believe, 
had we added our sticks and great coats 



11 

to the charge, when we left the packet- 
boat, three or four additional men would 
have graced our train. This is an impo- 
sition, and ought to be put a stop to by 
the police. They demanded two marcs, 
about three shillings English, for their 
trouble, which, considering the relative 
value of money in the two countries, is 
exorbitant; but, finding I could speak 
German and even express myself in their 
native dialect, they took what it pleased 
me to give them, and parted apparently 
satisfied. 

The inn which had been recommended 
to us I found to be but little superior, 
in point of accommodation, to an English 
country ale-house ; but I had not been 
seated many minutes, on an old chair, with 
a leather cover, in a room strewed with 
coarse sand, and strongly smelling of to- 
bacco, when my kind-hearted landlady 



12 



came running in with a plate-full of very 
fine strawberries for my young friend, 
inviting him, at the same time, into her 
garden, and to eat of the fruit with which 
every tree and bush was covered ; and, 
shortly after, her fair daughter brought, 
uncalled for, some strong beef broth, 
thinking it might be pleasant after so long 
a passage by sea. 

It being now but twelve o'clock, and 
having resolved to stop all night, we em- 
ployed our time, before dinner, in taking a 
view of the town and neighbourhood. 

Ritzbuttel is situated near the mouth of 
the Elbe, or rather upon the sea, on a 
fertile spot of land, belonging to Ham- 
burg. It lies so low that it can be pre- 
served from inundation only by high sea- 
banks, one of which unites it to Cux- 
haven, about a quarter of a mile distant, 
which contains a small wooden harbour. 



13 



fit only for vessels of low draught. The 
town may contain about three hundred 
houses, which have nothing remarkable 
in their appearance. Their shape resem- 
bles that of a large barn with its gabel 
end towards the street ; the lower part 
containing the dwelling rooms of the 
family, and the upper part, or loft, being 
appropriated to the keep of provisions or 
provender. There is hardly a respectable 
looking house to be met with, nor can this 
circumstance excite surprise when it is 
considered that but a few years have 
elapsed since it became one of the sta- 
tions for English packet-boats, and that 
no improvement could be expected while 
in possession of French douaniers. An at- 
tempt is, however, now making to add to its 
consequence, by converting it into a bath- 
ing place, and several machines, like those 
on the coasts of England, are provided for 



14 



that purpose ; but, the spot, where they are 
used, being at least a mile and a half from 
the town, and the neighbourhood possess- 
ing nothing attractive, it can never be 
expected that the lounging part of man- 
kind will become fond of it. The novelty 
of the thing, and the fine weather, had, 
nevertheless, collected many persons from 
Hamburg and Altona, and several even 
from the interior of Germany, among 
whom was a princess of Detmold and her 
children. Our inn also contained several 
of these bathers, the figure and costume 
of one of whom struck me with astonish- 
ment. It was a man neither tall nor 
short, apparently between thirty and forty 
years of age, remarkably corpulent, with 
a head as round as a ball, a mouth, nose, 
and chin very handsome, dark blue eyes, 
the keenest I had ever met with, and 
ruddy healthy cheeks, almost wholly co- 



15 

vered with his mustaches and whiskers, 
his neck and breast perfectly bare ; a short 
cloak of dark grey cloth, lined with fur, 
was carelessly slung on his shoulders over 
a shirt which had, probably, not been 
changed for a month ; and a pair of long 
military pantaloons covered the less noble 
parts of this sweet personage, who was 
a colonel of Prussian Hulans. No leader 
of banditti could look more frightful ; yet, 
when conversing, in the evening, with 
some of his friends, in a dense cloud of 
tobacco smoke, he discovered signs of 
a good education and good manners. 

As the summer had been unusually dry, 
I determined not to proceed by the com- 
mon road, over Stade, but to cross the 
unfrequented moors between Cuxhaven 
and Bederkesa, and, accordingly, ordered 
extra post to be ready by four in the 
morning of the following day. At the 



16 



appointed hour our carriage was at the 
door ; it consisted of a light four-wheeled 
open waggon, the sides of the body being 
of wicker work ; three wooden benches, 
covered with yellow plush cushions, were 
slung across, that in front being owned 
by the postillion, a young man in a blue 
jacket with a brass bugle horn slung over 
his shoulders. This vehicle was dravm 
by two strong horses, with rope traces, 
and I paid in advance eleven marcs, or 
about fourteen English shillings, for a 
distance of eighteen miles. 

We proceeded at a gentle trot two or 
three miles, through a low, swampy, but 
fertile country. There were fields of 
wheat, beans, and barley of a very pro- 
mising appearance, but nearly in a green 
state ; and the farm-houses, by the road- 
side, were large and seemed commodious. 
But the country soon became sandy, and 



17 



the ground was covered with rye, oats, 
and buck-wheat, and so thin that it could 
hardly repay for the trouble of sowing. 
An old woman here requested the driver's 
permission, not mine, to occupy the seat 
behind us, and without farther ceremony 
took possession of it. 

At a short distance from Altenwald, 
the first Hanoverian village on this side, 
we entered upon an extensive heath, 
and our attention was soon arrested by 
several small circular mounds of earth, 
evidently artificial. It was the country of 
the lesser Chaucians of Tacitus, and of 
the Saxons who settled in England, in 
the fifth century, we were now traversing ; 
and the tumuli, that everywhere occurred 
to our view, were the funeral monuments 
of their chieftains, neither injured by time 
nor man. They diflfered considerably in 
size, but by far the greater number mea- 



18 



sured about twenty feet in diameter ; one 
or two which we passed were, however, 
much larger. Seeing, not far from the 
road-side, a heap of stones, which, at first, 
I conjectured to be a shepherd's hut, I 
asked the postillion what they were in- 
tended for, — he replied, it was a kind of a 
vault, but could not tell for what purpose. 
This answer not satisfying us, we descend- 
ed from our carriage, and went about a 
furlong on our left to examine the spot 
more minutely. They were huge masses 
of red granite, rudely piled one over 
another, and enclosing an empty space, 
about eight feet long and four wide ; a 
block of many tons weight had formed the 
roof, but had fallen down and broke into 
several pieces. Our conductor and the 
old woman perceiving us so much inter- 
ested in those antiquities, told us, that on 
our right, about two miles distant, there 



19 



was a heap of stones of much larger 
dimensions, and that upon one of them 
was carved the figure of a giant. We 
regretted very much that our time would 
not permit us to go in search of this 
relic of the ancient Germans, which, I 
doubt not, would have well rewarded our 
trouble. We counted about thirty bar- 
rows upon this heath, within the space of 
three or four miles. 

As we approached Neuenwald the 
country became woody and much impro- 
ved in soil and appearance. This is a 
village of considerable size. Here we 
breakfasted and changed horses. Before 
the inn, which was likewise the post- 
house, was drawn up a troop of Hano- 
verian lancers, who were to receive their 
pay and undergo a periodical inspection. 
It was a remarkable fine body of young 
men, many of whom wore the Waterloo 



20 



medal, and one was decorated, in addi- 
tion, with the badge of some order, 
attached to his breast with a green riband. 
Nothing could exceed the beauty of their 
horses. 

It was ten o'clock before we left this 
place. Our equipage was similar to the 
former, but drawn by two very fine 
horses, one of which, though twelve 
years old, would not have disgraced an 
English curricle in Hyde-Park, so light 
and elegant was its form. The owner, 
a common peasant, who drove us, was 
not a little proud of it, and spoke with 
great feeling of its many escapes, as 
the French had formerly more than once 
fixed their eyes upon it. This man ap- 
peared to be a good-natured soul, and, 
after taking a dram and lighting his pipe, 
at the first public-house we met with, 
seemed well inclined to enter into con- 



21 



versation with us. I asked him some 
questions about the barrows which here, 
also, were extremely numerous; for, at 
the beginning of a small common, close 
by the roadside, we counted seven 
within the space of half an acre. He 
said they contained great quantities of 
stones, mostly of a small size, so many, 
indeed, that they had lately been used 
for paving a road near his village ; that 
earthen pots, but nothing else, had 
frequently been found in them, and 
that his Amtman, or magistrate, had 
offered a dollar for one in a perfect state. 
He had no notion of the origin of those 
little hills, and expressed great surprise 
when I told him, they were the burying 
places of some of his forefathers. Yes," 
he said, there are many curious things 
about here ; at some distance on our 
left, opposite to the public-house where 



22 



I took my dram, you saw a large sheet 
of water; now I will tell you some- 
thing about that : on that same spot 
there was formerly, but nobody can 
tell how long ago, a large town, called 
Heaven or Haden,'^ so I understood 
him, for every word was not intelligible 
to me, as he could only speak in the 
broad low Saxony dialect, but all the 
people in it were wicked, very wicked 
indeed, so the whole place suddenly 
sunk into the earth, and what was 
once a town is now a lake." Perceiving 
that I would not attach implicit credit 
to his tale, he continued, it is all true, 
what I tell you, for many spectres 
have been seen to come from it at night 
and, on one occasion, a boat, which 
was fishing on it for eels, was, in the 
twinkling of an eye, overturned, and 
^* pulled under the water with all the 



23 



people in it, and nobody ever after 
saw any thing more of it or them." 
Tacitus, in his work on the Manners of 
the Germans, states, that such as had 
been guilty of great crimes were suffo- 
cated in bogs and fens ; and it is not 
unlikely that the story of this artless 
peasant may derive its origin from that 
custom, handed down by tradition, from 
father to son, through a space of more 
than seventeen centuries. In an old 
map of this district, in my possession, 
I find a spot, in this neighbourhood, 
called Heidenstadt, which, literally trans- 
lated, signifies a place inhabited by 
heathens. 

We now entered upon a common which 
had but recently been the site of a 
forest; for the stumps of oak-trees, 
of the largest dimensions, were still visi- 
ble; I was told that the ground was 



24 



church-land, and, timber not being wanted, 
the trees had been suffered to grow till 
quite hollow, when they were sold for 
fuel. Some of them must have been 
between four and five feet in diameter. 
The country hereabouts was less sandy 
and bare, small woods of fir and other 
species of trees being frequent. This 
was but a short stage, and between 
twelve and one we arrived at Bederkesa. 

The postmaster, in a long great coat, 
with a clean white cotton nightcap on 
his li^ad, and a long pipe in his mouth, 
welcomed us as we entered his house ; 
and, having received our orders for horses, 
began to ask us a series of questions ; 
where we came from ; to what place we 
were going ; the object of our journey ; 
even our names he wished to know, and 
whether we were Englishmen or Germans ; 
to all which interrogatories, which in 



25 



England would have sounded extremely 
impertinent, but which were almost ex- 
cusable in a place so deserted and out of 
the way as this, I returned such answers 
as I thought proper. He cha„rged us for 
only three German miles to Bremervord e, 
though the distance was in reality much 
greater; and not having sufficient small 
money to pay him, I produced a double 
Prussian Frederic-d'or, worth about 
£1 : 14 : 0. He returned in a short time 
with a handful of Hanoverian three- 
penny pieces, made of a composition of 
silver and copper, containing on one side 
the figure of a galloping horse, the armo- 
rial bearing of the house of Hanover, 
and on the other the value and denomi- 
nation of the coin. Looking at it with 
some curiosity, he launched out in praises 
of its intrinsic excellence, though the 
copper was visibly predominating, saying 



26 



it was the best in all Germany, and was, 
therefore, daily becoming scarcer, which 
I found to be the fact. While our horses 
were getting ready, we took a view of 
this little town, which hardly merits that 
name, not being superior to a large 
village, but found nothing to attract our 
attention, except a stork's nest upon the 
top of a farm-house ; for this long-legged 
bird is regarded with a superstitious vene- 
ration, and it is firmly believed that the 
house which it favours with a visit, must 
prosper when thus protected. 

Our new postillion was an athletic 
young man, in the Hanoverian Post- 
office uniform, strongly marked with 
that family resemblance of countenance, 
which I had observed generally to prevail 
in this part of the country, high cheek- 
bones, a projecting nose and chin, blue 
eyes, light hair, and fair complexion. 



27 

* 

He appeared very good-natured and in- 
telligent, and asked many questions 
respecting the agriculture of England. 
I therefore tried to give him an idea of 
some of the distinguishing features of 
English husbandry, such as drilling and 
horse-hoeing, of which he was totally 
ignorant. Any contrivance by which the 
produce of the soil is increased or faci- 
litated is a great blessing every where, 
but would be particularly so in the district 
through which we were travelling. It 
was a mass of sand in the literal sense 
of the word, producing here and there 
some miserable crops of rye and oats, so 
scanty from the natural sterility of the 
soil and the want of rain, that I am per- 
suaded the average produce of an acre 
could not exceed four bushels. Buck- 
wheat, however, the general food of the 
^peasantry in this part of Germany, looked 

c2 



28 



somewhat more promising. From this 
description of the country we were in, 
one might be led to believe, that the 
landscape appeared wretched and melan- 
choly, but this is far from being the case. 
It is not a sandy plain on which the eye 
in vain seeks for an object to rest upon ; 
there was a continued undulation of 
surface ; the most charming woods of 
oak or fir broke the chain of uniformity, 
and now and then the high and pointed 
spire of a village church, appearing unex- 
pectedly over a group of farm-houses 
and orchards, made us almost forget the 
poverty of the soil we trod on. 

Though we had now passed over a 
space of more than forty miles, we had 
seen but one flock of sheep, yet the short 
grass which abounds on the extensive 
wastes would afford food for thousands ; 
this, I think, can only be attributed to 



29 



the difficulty of preserving those valuable 
animals during a dreary winter of seven 
months, when the ground is covered with 
ice and snow. That, under such circum- 
stances, the population should be scanty 
is self-evident ; accordingly, I never, in 
my life, except among the mountains of 
North Wales, met with so few people on 
any road ; — a gentleman on horseback, a 
man with a gun on one shoulder, and a 
shooting-bag, made of the skin of a wild 
boar, slung over the other, and two 
peasants so fast asleep in their carts, that 
it required a tune from the postillion's 
horn, close to their ears, to rouse them, 
were all the travellers we met during four 
hours. But if of the living there be few, 
there is no lack of the monuments of the 
dead. One tumulus succeeded another, 
and the stones, in such as had been 
opened, were all of the largest size. There 



30 



was one barrow in a wood, upon the top 
of which oak-trees were growing, and 
the earth had recently been sufficiently 
removed to show the manner in which 
the stones were placed ; these were blocks 
of granite, of several tons weight, dis- 
posed in a form very similar to the 
rude vault on the moor near Altenwalde, 
which we went to see in the morning ; 
and this similarity makes me think that 
the latter was an unfinished sepulchre, 
which it had been intended to cover with 
earth, as in the case of all the other 
barrows. Near the road, upon a large 
common, we also perceived a circular 
hollow space about fifty or sixty feet in 
diameter, and about four feet deep, quite 
level at the bottom ; it could not have 
been designed to answer the purpose of 
a reservoir of water, for why, in that 
case, should the form be exactly circu- 



31 



lar? besides, there was plenty of water 
in the neighbourhood ; nor did it appear 
to have been the site of any building. 
Another relic of antiquity was visible on 
our left, a few miles from Bremervorde, 
and about three quarters of a mile distant 
from the road near the edge of a wood 
of young firs, but we lost the opportu- 
nity of examining it closely, which I 
much regret ; for I had mistaken a large 
mass of whitish stones, piled one over 
another, with a great number of a smaller 
size lying round it, for a hut or shed in 
the midst of a flock of sheep, and it was 
not till we had passed the spot several 
miles that our driver directed my atten- 
tion to it. I would willingly have re- 
turned to take a view of it, but we had 
been exposed for hours to a scorching 
sun upon a road of loose sand, into which 
the wheels were sinking a foot deep, and 



32 



were all fatigued and longing for some 
refreshment; we, therefore, went on at 
a slow rate, and, at length, between five 
and six o'clock, arrived at a comfortable 
inn at Bremervorde. 

The landlord, who spoke a little En- 
glish, received us with great civility, and 
ushered us into a large well-furnished 
room, the best we had seen since our 
departure from Cuxhaven; and in less 
than ten minutes, a female servant placed 
before us a shoulder of venison of the 
most delicious flavour, with a bottle of 
very good French white wine, for the 
whole of which, to our great surprise, they 
charged but three shillings and sixpence. 

There is something neat and comforta- 
ble in the outward appearance of this lit- 
tle town, which is situated upon the navi- 
gable river Oste, which falls into the 
Elbe, and carries on some trade. The 



33 



population appears to be increasing, for 
we saw land which had recently been 
cultivated for the first time. We stopped 
about an hour, and then proceeded 
onward to Zeven, famous for the 
convention concluded in the early part 
of the seven years' war, between the 
Duke of Cumberland and the French, 
by which his army became neutralized 
for some time. The country bore the 
same features as north of Bremervorde ; 
extensive heaths, forests of oak and pine, 
and here and there some cultivated ground 
sown with buck-wheat, rye, and barley, 
which, for want of rain, looked misera- 
ble. The sun had set some time when 
we entered a large wood, abounding with 
deer and wild boars : the moon was at 
its full, and whenever a chasm occurred 
among the trees, burst upon us in all 
its splendour. There was something 

c 3 



34 



awful in this scene, which seemed even 
to affect our guide ; for in the very heart 
of this gloomy assemblage of majestic 
pines, whose tops appeared to touch the 
clouds, he took his bugle from his side, 
and played a melancholy ditty, the effect 
of which, in the dead stillness of the 
night, and in such a place, it is impos- 
sible to describe. 

It was late before we arrived at Zeven, 
and the people at the post-house were 
gone to bed ; but the postillion's horn 
soon brought a couple of handsome- 
looking peasant girls upon their legs, 
not at all cross at being thus disturbed, 
who, with extraordinary celerity, pre- 
pared some excellent coffee for us. We 
slept very soundly, after having disencum- 
bered ourselves of half our feather-beds ; 
for, in this country, you have as much 
bedding over you as under ; and at five 



35 



o'clock in the morning of the 16th of July 
we were ready to start. 

Our carriage and horses were wretched, 
and the driver, to be in unison, proved 
to be a stupid phlegmatic fellow, but 
not an ill-tempered man. To render our 
situation still worse, it began to rain the 
moment we left the inn, and it ceased 
not for several hours ; and, jiaving no 
cover but our great coats, we were very 
uncomfortably situated. The country 
was woody and not unpleasant, but the 
deep sand and heavy rain made our 
progress very slow, and never had we 
longed for English carriages and English 
roads so much as at this moment. The 
time we were travelling seemed eternal, 
and we felt a strong inclination to grum- 
ble, when suddenly, and as by enchant- 
ment, we found ourselves upon a mag- 
nificent paved causeway. It was the 



36 



work of Napoleon Bonaparte to facili- 
tate the communication between Ham- 
burg and Bremen, and its permanent 
utility is some slight compensation for 
the manifold evils which he inflicted upon 
the poor Hanoverians. This road runs 
through Rothenbourg, where we soon after 
arrived. It is a small neat country 
town, which contains several good houses. 
We were here, for the first time, treated 
with a covered carriage. It was some- 
thing like the body of a chariot fixed 
upon a waggon, and, in spite of its rotten 
condition and unsightly look, greatly 
preferable, in bad weather, to the open 
vehicle in which we had hitherto moved. 

At a short distance from the town, on 
our way to Walsrode, we met a consi- 
derable number of men and women busily 
employed in the construction of the new 
road, which is to extend from the city 



37 



of Hanover to the coast. Some parts 
were already finished and in use ; but, 
from the specimen we saw, I doubt of 
its utility being so great as one might be 
led to think ; it was broad and high in 
the middle, but, being simply formed of 
the loose sand obtained by cutting a ditch 
on each side, the wheel moves on no 
solid substance, and sinks deep into it. 
To remedy this defect, it would be neces- 
sary either to vary the breadth of the 
wheel, according to the weight it is 
intended to support, or to pave the 
road. But to the former there are some 
important objections : unless the different 
governments of Germany were to agree 
in establishing uniform regulations upon 
that head, which should be binding to 
all their subjects, the intercourse be- 
tween one state and another would be 
more impeded than facilitated ; and such 



38 



regulations could only emanate from a 
General Council of the nation, like that 
now assembled at Francfort. At a future 
period, when a long and uninterrupted 
peace has healed the wounds inflicted 
by revolutionary France on the Conti- 
nent, the obvious advantage of a ready 
communication all over Germany will, 
it is to be hoped, lead to the adoption 
of such measures. Another objection 
is the great expense to individuals, 
which, in the present exhausted state 
of their finances, they would be unable 
to bear. The wheels of a peasant's 
waggon, in this country, are the most 
expensive parts of it ; and the acquisition 
of a new waggon is to him a momentous 
subject. To pave the road appears 
to be more feasible, and nothing but 
the vast capital it would require can 
prevent its being done. Stone, fit for 



39 



that purpose, abounds in every part of 
this sandy district. A few miles west- 
ward of Walsrode we passed over a large 
common, on which the strata of granite, 
which I have no doubt lie at no great 
depth under the sand, are laid bare ; and 
the large fragments, which at short in- 
tervals jut from the surface, give it, at 
a distance, an appearance somewhat simi- 
lar to a church-yard. In another place, 
also, on this road, the inhabitants of a 
large village are in every dry season 
greatly distressed for water; and we 
were told, that every attempt to obtain 
it by digging, wells had failed, there 
being an impenetrable barrier of rocks, 
below the upper beds, which stops their 
progress. 

The weather cleared up towards noon, 
and, the sun shining bright, our journey 
became very pleasant. Although the soil 



40 



continued to be sandy, the country, in 
general, in this neighbourhood, bore 
some marks of improvement and com- 
fort; there was more cattle, though but 
a lank miserable breed ; the waste com- 
mons were less numerous and extensive ; 
the surface displayed greater variety of 
feature, and was woody, and potatoe- 
fields, carefully hand-hoed, occurred fre- 
quently. The houses of the villagers 
were large and more convenient than one 
might have expected in so barren a 
country. The frame is generally of oak, 
and instead of brick, lath or wattling is 
used, which is plastered over with clay, 
and white-washed. The right and left 
side, as you enter the door, which is 
wide enough to admit a loaded waggon, 
is occupied by stables for the horses and 
cows, over which the provender is kept ; 
at the farther end, and opposite the 



41 



door, you see a large fire-hearth on the 
ground, and round an immense chim- 
ney are suspended hams, bacon, pigs' 
heads, and sausages, as black as the 
smoke which ascends from a large log of 
wood, or peat, and which preserves those 
dainties for the Sunday's dinner; and 
behind this hearth there are two, and 
sometimes three rooms, in which no 
wood is wasted on floors, nor glass on 
windows ; one of which, the parlour, con- 
tains an iron stove, a large square wooden 
table, and round it a bench fixed in the 
wall, or a few wooden chairs ; and, if the 
owner be a wealthy man, you see, more- 
over, a Dutch clock ticking in a corner ; 
his treasury, his wardrobe, and his library, 
consisting of a Bible and hymn-book, 
are carefully guarded in his sleeping- 
apartment, and an immense oak trunk, 



42 



generally bearing marks of great anti- 
quity, in some nook near the fire-place, 
contains the dower of the fair, bare- 
footed, daughter, a valuable stock of 
linen, which the provident mother has 
early taught her to collect by her own 
industry. Over the door, on the outside 
of the house, you invariably see some sen- 
tence from the sacred Scriptures, carved 
in Gothic characters, together with the 
name of the man and his wife who built 
the mansion, and the date of its erection ; 
and not unfrequently a target, painted 
in the gayest colours, won at the annual 
shooting-match, after the feast of St. 
John, is firmly fixed near the gable top, 
a monument of the skill of the success- 
ful competitor. Thus, in the dreary 
nights of a German winter, the peasant 
shuts his door, sits near a blazing fire. 



43 



surrounded by his family and his cattle, 
and enjoys his pipe, while the females 
spin or knit. 

We dined at a very good inn at Wals- 
rode, a clean well-built little town, 
situated upon the Bohme, a small river 
which flows into the Aller. The dinner 
was extremely good, and to us uncom- 
monly cheap. We had excellent soup, 
three sorts of fish, boiled and roasted 
meat, dressed in various fashions, salad, 
and several kinds of vegetables, for 
which, with a bottle of wine, they 
charged five shillings. The country 
from this place to Hadensdorff' was the 
most romantic we had seen since putting 
our feet on German ground. Near the 
rivulet many fertile fields were feeding 
great numbers of horses and cows, and 
the sand-hills, gently rising on both sides, 
were crowned with oak or fir woods, or 



44 



in a state of cultivation. At the pleasant 
village of Hademulen, a barge of con- 
siderable dimension was building, and, 
in a few minutes, we found ourselves 
upon the banks of the navigable AUer, 
which is here, after its junction with the 
river Leine, of as great a breadth as the 
Thames, near Richmond. Many of the 
houses of the farmers, in the villages we 
passed through, were very large and 
built of brick, and every thing bore 
the appearance of increasing wealth and 
comfort. We also perceived a striking 
difference in the form and countenance 
of the people ; the females, in particular, 
were of a more slender make, and had 
softer and more handsome features ; blue 
eyes and light hair still prevailed. 

It had been my plan and wish to reach 
Hanover this evening; but it was six 
o'clock before we arrived at Hadens- 



45 



dorfF ; we therefore resolved to stop the 
night at MoUendorfF, one post from the 
capital. The distances between the 
places are, in many instances, so erro- 
neously laid down on the maps and routes, 
that we were constantly apt to miscalcu- 
late. Thus, at one post-ofEce, I was 
made to pay for about fourteen English 
miles, when I expected to be charged 
for ten ; at another, in the early part of 
our journey, we paid for only fifteen, 
though the distance proved to be more 
than twenty. Having mentioned this 
circumstance to one of the post-masters, 
he smiled : — formerly," he said " we 
" had long miles ; when we were saddled 
" with the French they became short, 
and now, I suppose, we shall have 
long miles again, as the roads have 
recently been measured a second time. 
Some of the French surveyors, who 



46 



were ordered to ascertain the distances 
from one post to another on this road, 
would take a bribe, and, if you could 
slip a good round sum into their 
pockets, would not scruple to make a 
stage a little longer than it really was, 
and so the post-master got good in- 
terest for his money/' 
When the moon rose we had again to 
pass a large forest, so extensive we were 
told that, in one direction, a pedestrian 
might travel a whole day under the shade 
of trees. We arrived at Mollendorff 
towards midnight, and being much fa- 
tigued, retired almost immediatelj" to 
bed. We left this place about eight in 
the morning with four horses, the post- 
master, a civil young man, having given 
us two horses gratis ; so that we entered 
the capital of his Britannic Majesty's 
German dominions in a comparatively 



47 



grand style. We had a first glimpse of 
this city from a sandy eminence, soon 
after we left the inn ; and its four high 
steeples, with the majestic hills of the 
southern division of the kingdom, formed 
a picture by no means uninteresting. 
Thus at noon on Friday, the 17th of 
July, we found ourselves in Hanover, 
having been occupied two days and a 
half in going the distance of about 140 
English miles, and at an expense of 
£8:8:6, including refreshments. 



48 



CHAP. II. 

HANOVER AND ITS ENVIRONS. — EXCURSIONS 
TO THE DEISTER HILLS. 

The kingdom of Hanover extends 
from 51 i° to 54^ N. lat. and from 
to 11 2^ E. long. It is of an irregular 
figure, and contains about 14,000 square 
N miles, and a population of 1,300,000 inha- 
bitants, which is rapidly increasing ; the 
deaths in 1817 having been 32,004, and 
the births 47,890. It is bounded in the 
west by Holland and Westphalia ; in the 
north by the German Ocean and the river 
Elbe ; in the east by Prussia ; and in the 
south by Saxony and Hessia. The ter- 
ritory north of the capital is generally 



49 



low and sandy; but the southern and 
smaller division is hilly and fertile. It 
possesses many natural advantages for 
commerce, being watered by the Elbe, 
the Weser, and the Ems ; yet its foreign 
trade is inconsiderable; the free cities 
of Hamburg and Bremen absorbing 
nearly all that is carried on by the Elbe 
and Weser. The principal seat of the 
little foreign trade it can boast of is Em- 
den, in Eastfriesland, a recent acquisi- 
tion from Prussia. With respect to cli- 
mate, it is rather hotter in summer and 
colder in winter than in England ; but 
the air is more dry and pure, and sudden 
changes of the weather are not frequent. 

The people, in general, are honest, so- 
ber, and industrious, and rather tall. The 
educated part speaks the modern lan- 
guage of Germany in great purity; but 
the peasantry, and inferior classes of 

D 



50 



citizens are still accustomed to the 
dialect spoken in ancient times, many 
words of which occur in the English lan- 
guage. Their form of government is 
representative; they are not overburdened 
with taxes ; and poor-rates are unknown. 
Voluntary collections for the poor are 
frequently made ; but the lower classes 
chiefly rely on the spinning of flax, as a 
never- failing resource in the hour of 
distress. 

The attachment of the Hanoverians to 
their lawful Sovereign is unquestionable ; 
their exemplary conduct, during the ten 
long years they suffered under French 
rule, is a splendid proof of it. It was 
the officers of the Hanoverian army, dis- 
solved in 1803, in consequence of the 
French invasion, who, rejecting the tempt- 
ing off'ers of the enemy, and abandoning 
their families and their property, repaired 



51 



to England, and there formed the ground- 
work of that German Legion, which so 
highly distinguished itself in the peninsu- 
lar war : and if, during Bonaparte's tyran- 
ny, nothing was heard of insurrections or 
assassinations of French soldiers by the 
peasantry of Hanover, it was, because it 
is repugnant to the national character of 
the Hanoverian to murder the man who 
sleeps under the same roof with him, 
though the instrument of his ruin ; and, 
because partial insurrections, in a country 
circumstanced as Hanover was, were use- 
less, and therefore wisely prevented by 
the magistrates, who, fortunately for the 
inhabitants, remained at their posts, 
and obviated many of the evils which 
would otherwise have been unavoidable. 
When Bonaparte's disasters in Russia 
offered a prospect of successful resistance 
on the part of the minor states of Ger- 

d2 



52 



many, then the people rose as one man^ 
and formed an army, 26,000 of which 
subsequently served under the Duke of 
Wellington in Flanders, and fought and 
conquered at Waterloo. Many were the 
anecdotes I heard of the impatience of 
the people to'get rid of their oppressors, 
and more than once the greatest misfor- 
tunes might have resulted from the pre- 
mature appearance of the Cossacs, in the 
earlier part of 1813. 

The city of Hanover is situated about 
the centre of the kingdom in lat. 52° 22' 
18" N. and long. 9"^ 18' 15" E. upon two 
islands, formed by the rivers Leine and 
Ihme. It is nearly of a circular form, 
and measures about two miles and a half 
in circumference. It was formerly forti- 
fied with a rampart, wall, and ditch, but 
very little at present remains of them; 
the fortifications being dismantled between 



53 



thirty and forty years ago. It contains 
1,500 houses, and 20,500, inhabitants ; 
exclusive of the garrison, and those who 
live in the suburbs. It is divided into three 
parts, the City, or old town; the new 
town of Calenberg ; and the new town of 
^gidius. The city contains, besides a 
royal and a garrison chapel, two parish 
churches, one of which, the principal, 
is several centuries old; it is a plain brick 
building, with a very high square tower 
of the same material, abruptly termina- 
ting in a small spire visible at a great dis- 
tance. The streets, in this part of the 
town, are rather crooked, but more spa- 
cious than one might expect, considering 
the age in which they were planned, 
and still contain a great number of old 
houses with gable-tops, the Gothic orna- 
ments of some of which are very curious. 
But there are likewise many handsome 



54 



houses of modern architecture, among 
which the palace of the Duke of Cam- 
bridge, in the Leine-Street, takes the first 
place. The King's palace is opposite to 
the latter; it occupies a considerable 
space between the Leine-Street and one 
branch of the river, over which there is a 
bridge of one arch, constructed of brick, 
and so remarkably light, that, when finish- 
ed, George the II. is said to have obser- 
ved, it would not bear the weight of an 
eighteen pounder; upon which the architect 
replied, if his Majesty would permit him, he 
would ride over it upon a thirty-six pounder. 
A part of the palace is at present rebuild- 
ing, and will be made uniform with an 
adjoining wing erected about eighty years 
since ; it faces the river, and that front 
will produce a beautiful effect. 

The new town of Calenberg contains 
one parish church, with a high handsome 



55 



steeple of modem architecture; also a 
Catholic church, and a Jews' synagogue ; 
the mint ; and the national library, which 
is a large handsome building. The streets 
are mostly spacious, and that of Calenberg I 
consider as the finest in the whole town ; 
it contains several large inns and hotels, 
besides a great number of shops, and, being 
the greatest thoroughfare, is always lively 
and cheerful. 

The new town of iEgidius is not more 
than a century old ; the streets are all 
spacious, and cross each other at right 
angles. The houses are handsome, and 
inhabited chiefly by families belonging to 
the court or government ; but, as no trade 
is carried on in it, it looks rather deserted. 
This part also contains one parish church, 
the steeple of which is much admired for 
its fine proportions. But, were I to re- 



56 



side at Hanover, I should prefer the 
Frederic-street, built upon the site of 
one of the ramparts : it is long and 
straight, planted with four rows of lime- 
trees, and, only one side being occupied by 
houses, affords a pleasant view of the 
country. There is another new street, 
called the George-street, likewise con- 
structed upon what was formerly a ram- 
part, and containing a few large houses 
on one side, but the prospect from it is 
less interesting. 

The streets, without exception, are 
well paved, and that part which is appro- 
priated for foot-passengers is covered with 
flags; and all are kept extremely clean 
under the superintendence of the magis- 
trates, and well lighted during the winter- 
season ; and as the houses, with few ex- 
ceptions, are painted on the outside, and 



57 



not spoiled by smoke, the whole, toge- 
ther, produces an impression of neatness 
and comfort. 

There are many buildings deserving of 
some notice, such as the house in which 
the States of the Kingdom assemble ; the 
royal stables, which contain many good 
carriage-horses, and of the cream-colour- 
ed and snow-white breeds, only found in 
the Hanoverian dominions ; but descrip- 
tions of buildings seldom convey a clear 
idea, I shall therefore be short in this 
respect. 

The police is excellent: the doors of 
the houses are open in the day time, yet 
theft is scarcely heard of; and though 
but few watchmen are kept at night, cases 
of burglary are extremely rare. 

There are no beggars in the streets : 
only once during my stay, a woman, de- 
cently dressed, with some children by her 

d3 



58 



side, asked charity of me outside one of 
the gates, and it was late in the evening, 
and she seemed half ashamed of doing it. 
Neither did I see a single person in rags, 
which greatly surprised me, and which I 
did not expect, knowing how much the 
country had suffered under the French 
and Westphalian Governments. This fact 
speaks much in favour of the moral cha- 
racter of the lower classes. A great part 
of the clothing of the poorer females is 
the work of their own industry ; they knit 
their own stockings, and spin the thread 
that is to furnish their linen. The mid- 
dling and higher classes dress in the 
English fashion, and British cottons and 
muslins are universally worn. The dress 
of the men is also nearly the same as in 
England, but instead of hats many, even 
among the superior order, prefer a cloth- 
cap, with a gold or silver band, which is 



59 



rather an elegant covering for the head. 
But, upon the whole, the men do not dress 
so well as in England, particularly the 
lower classes of citizens ; for cloth, con- 
sidering the relative value of money, bears 
a high price, and the mechanic in Lower 
Saxony, who earns two shillings a day, 
cannot so well afford to pay £3 for a iieYv 
coal, as he who earns five shillings daily 
in England, and pays £4 for one. 

All classes are sober, and though the 
middling and lower orders of men will take 
a dram at breakfast time, intoxication is 
not a prevalent vice ; and a gentleman 
seen drunk in public would lose his cha- 
racter for ever. Smoking of tobacco is, 
however, carried to great excess, and has 
much increased of late. They ridicule 
the idea of its having a bad effect upon 
the health, or that it is capable of weak- 
ening the faculties of the mind ; and the 



60 



habit is so deeply rooted, that ages will 
elapse before they are weaned from it. 

More rational amusements are furnished 
during the winter season by the theatre, 
concerts, and social meetings in clubs, to 
which the inhabitants are very partial ; 
and which are enjoyed at a trifling 
expense. In summer they spend their 
evenings at their gardens and villas in the 
neighbourhood of the town, or in fre- 
quenting the numerous charming and rural 
walks by which Hanover is distinguished. 

The picture, which I have briefly drawn 
of the Hanoverian, represents him in a 
favorable point of view. It cannot, 
however, be denied, that the restoration 
of the legitimate government was one of 
the greatest blessings that could have been 
conferred upon him. The French were 
beginning to make great inroads upon the 
virtue of the female part of the nation ; 



61 



and would in time have corrupted the 
whole. Fortunately the battle of Leipzig 
removed this pestilence from the soil of 
Germany. 

I shall now give a short description of the 
principal promenades, and begin with the 
one which is nearest, and most frequented 
at all seasons of the year, that round the 
town, upon the site of the ancient forti- 
fications. Upon leaving the king s palace 
you cross the one-arch bridge before- 
mentioned, and an open space, a part of 
one of the islands formed by the river 
Leine, and see before you a water-mill 
upon the opposite channel of that river, 
and close to it the royal mint, a stone 
building of moderate size and rather hand- 
some. Turning to the left you pass on 
your I'ight a piece of ground formerly 
. used as a Vauxhall, but which is now the 
property of General Alten, who so much 



62 



distinguished himself under the Duke of 
Wellington, and who is erecting a hand- 
some mansion for his future residence on 
it. In a few minutes you again cross the 
branch of the river which runs by the 
palace, leaving on your left a sawing and 
a flour mill. You now enter the Frederic- 
street, at the beginning of which on the 
right there is a large high building which 
had been used as a corn-magazine, but 
was found to be not sufficiently strong for 
that purpose. It is an unsightly structure 
and ought to be pulled down. The Fre- 
deric-street is strait and spacious, planted 
with four rows of lime-trees. One side 
contains several handsome houses, and, 
among others, that in which the English 
club assembles, a small but noble build- 
ing, in the Grecian style of architec- 
ture. There are no houses opposite, but, 
what is more agreeable, rich meadows 



63 



extending nearly two miles to the vil- 
lage of Dohren, which, being generally 
inundated in winter, afford an excellent 
place for the amusement of skating. The 
walk of lime-trees then takes a turn to 
the left and goes round the new town 
of ^gidius, till it meets the George- 
street, which is planted with two rows of 
the same kind of trees, which form so 
beautiful and close an arbour, that it com- 
pletely sheltered me from a heavy shower 
of rain. Some houses are already built on 
the left, and this street will hereafter be 
one of the finest of Hanover, and com- 
pletely shut out from the view, on this 
side, the oldest and worst part of the 
city. About midway, on your right, one 
of the ancient bastions remains entire, 
with a windmill upon it. Farther on you 
have a glimpse of the Parliament-house, 
a grand building of modern architecture. 



64 



Arrived at the end, you cross the main 
street that leads from the city to one of 
the five gates, called the Stone Gate. You 
then ascend a part of the rampart nearly 
in its original state, having a broad deep 
ditch on the outside, and cross another 
bastion, upon which stands the house of 
the commandant. It was in this building, 
which has nothing to merit attention, that 
the late beautiful queen of Prussia was 
born, while her father, the late Duke of 
Mecklenburg Strelitz, was military gover- 
nor of Hanover. Upon descending you 
perceive on your left a range of extensive 
buildings, fronting the river, terminated 
by a high round tower. The two first are 
the king s stables ; the third is the ar- 
mory, and the round tower a remnant of 
the ancient fortifications, when the steep 
banks of the Leine, in this part, formed 
the southern limit of the town. After 



65 



crossing the river you notice the prison, 
a massive stone building, secured on one 
side by the Leine, which runs iiere with 
great rapidity ; and, continuing your walk, 
still under the shade of trees, you leave 
on your left the catholic church, and on 
your right you have a charming view of 
the country. You then pursue your walk, 
till, after crossing the Calenb erg-street, 
you come to a monument erected in honor 
of Leipnitz, upon the site of a bastion 
half-demolished, and in the midst of a 
small shrubbery. This spot is at the top 
of the parade, an oblong square, surround- 
ed by lime trees, large enough for about 
500 men to be drawn up three deep. At 
the bottom of this place, opposite to the 
philosopher's monument, it is said to be 
the intention to erect a column in memory 
of the battle of Waterloo. After passing 
the parade you have completed the circuit 



66 



of the town. It being Sunday, a consi- 
derable number of people were assembled 
to see the troops mounting guard ; they 
consisted of foot-guards, yagers, landwher, 
and artillery, about 400 men, a select 
body of healthy young men, clothed and 
armed exactly like British troops, and 
resembliilg them in make and look 
so closely, that, on the parade of St. 
James, they might have been mistaken for 
Englishmen. The bands of four regi- 
ments were united, and the spectacle was, 
upon the whole, rather brilliant. 

Close by the parade a road leads into 
some of the meadows on the south side 
of the town. We went about a furlong 
under the shade of two rows of birch- 
trees, till we came to a small shrubbery, 
and, ascending a low terrace, found our- 
selves upon the brink of the river, which 
exhibited a curious scene; it was covered 



67 



with beech- wood, felled in the interior 
of the country; two or three hundred 
men, in parties, were busily employed 
in taking it out, and piling it up in rows 
of a certain height, under the inspection 
of officers. They were labouring very 
hard, and, to ease their task, were sing- 
ing, in chorus, some national air, the 
effect of which, at a distance, was not 
unpleasant. From 6 to 8000 loads of fire- 
wood are thus, annually, floated down to the 
metropolis. When dry the greater part 
of it is distributed to persons holding 
situations under the government, in cer- 
tain proportions, according to their re- 
spective ranks, at a price of about one- 
third less than what the citizens pay for the 
same quantity of wood to the farmers ; but 
having been several weeks immersed in 
water, it is inferior to the fuel obtained 
from the neighbouring hills. We con- 



68 



tinned our walk under the shade of two 
rows of willow- trees upon the bank of 
the river, which is here not above twenty 
yards broad, but in many places very 
deep. The colour of the water was red, 
from the vast quantity of earthy particles 
suspended in it. It is scarcely ever 
clear; and when it overflows the ad- 
joining marsh-land, which generally hap- 
pens once in the year, it leaves behind 
a thick fertilizing slime. We had walked 
about a mile, when our ears were filled 
with the roaring of a water-fall. It was 
the river Leine precipitating itself into 
the river Ihme. The scene was sublime, 
and can only be compared to the dashing 
of the sea, in a storm, against some insu- 
lated rock. The bed of the latter river, 
which was originally a small brook, is 
situated much lower than that of the 
former, a cut was therefore made from 



69 



the main river, and a strong dam of 
stone built across, over which the surplus 
water of the Leine falls into the river 
below. The breadth is about seventy 
feet, and the fall from twelve to fifteen. 
Inundations, such as formerly converted 
the neighbouring" country into a lake, 
are thus prevented. This useful work 
was first erected in 1651. 

A kind of fence having been made to 
prevent the floating wood from passing 
into the Ihme, we were enabled to cross 
to the opposite shore, where a fisherman 
had built a hut close to the cascade. 
He told us that he had been anxiously 
watching several weeks for a large sal- 
mon, of about twenty-seven pounds, 
which had made frequent attempts to 
scend the falling stream. If he caught 
it he should have a fortune ; for, at the 
Duke's palace, he should obtain half-a- 



70 



crown a pound for it. A salmon in this 
river is a phenomenon ; it had evidently 
escaped from the Weser, and made its 
way through several locks. We gave the 
man a trifle to guide us through a small 
copse through which there was no path, 
and then went on to the village of 
Dohren, which stands upon the river, 
here, not less than forty yards broad. 
After refreshing ourselves at an old tower 
near the skirts of an extensive forest, 
we returned by a high road, planted on 
each side with poplars, and paved in the 
middle ; but it was not in a good condi- 
tion, and required a thorough repair. 

Our next excursion was directed to a 
different point. We went through the 
Calenberg-Gate v/hich faces the south, 
and, in two or three minutes, arrived at 
a high stone bridge of several arches over 
the river Ihme, which cannot here be 



71 



less than one hundred yards wide, being 
near its junction with the Leine, and 
makes an interesting appearance, for the 
right bank is adorned with pretty gardens 
and country-houses, and the left, about 
a quarter of a mile below the bridge, 
contains the wharf, where a number of 
vessels are always lading or discharging 
their cargoes. They are long flat-bot- 
tomed barges, drawn by horses, which 
import wines, colonial, and other goods, 
from Bremen, valued at £70,000 ster- 
ling per annum, and export native pro- 
ducts, such as stone, lead, vitriol, tim- 
ber, &c. to the amount of about half 
that sum. 

The instant we had crossed this river 
we came into a country of which the soil 
and physical aspect is the reverse of that 
to which we had been accustomed, from 
the moment of our landing till our arrival 



72 



at the capital. Instead of those wide 
sandy plains, which, at some remote pe- 
riod of the world seem to have been over- 
whelmed by the sea, the horizon was 
bounded by hills, crowned with woods, 
and a rich cultivated country. We as- 
cended gradually, by the side of a paved 
high road, the great causeway that leads 
to the south of Germany upon the skirts 
of the village of Linden, inhabited prin- 
cipally by linen-weavers, and taking a 
sudden turn to the right, pursued a path 
under a high stone w all, which surrounds 
a park lately in the possession of the 
Counts of Platen, and in a few minutes 
found ourselves upon the Linden Berg. 
This hill is situated about a mile and a 
half from Hanover, and may be about 
two hundred feet high. It is composed 
of strata of lime-stone, containing ma- 
rine petrifactions, and resting upon beds 



73 



of potter's clay. Great quantities of 
lime, which has the reputation of being 
very pure, is burnt and sold here. Upon 
the top of the hill is a large stone wind- 
mill, visible at a considerable distance. 
The miller's garden is always open for 
company ; and one may have coffee and 
other refreshments at a reasonable price. 
This place is much frequented in summer 
by genteel company, attracted by the 
beautiful prospects it affords, and the 
pure atmosphere one breathes. The 
Brocken, the most elevated of the Hartz 
mountains, which is 8150 feet high, and 
distant about sixty miles, may be clearly 
discerned on a fine day, without the aid 
of telescopes. It was on this hill that 
we saw, for the first time in Germany, 
a field of tobacco, — a proof of the ex- 
cellent quality of the soil. 

I left this spot with feelings of regret, 

£ 



74 



as it was not likely that I should ever 
revisit it. As the weather was as fine as 
could be wished, and we had still a great 
part of the day before us, we crossed to 
the south side, and, after walking about a 
mile through an open country, of which 
every inch was cultivated, entered theLim- 
mer-wood, so called from a village of that 
name upon the banks of the river Leine, 
which! we could plainly distinguish, 
and which was now become a very re- 
spectable stream. About thirty years 
ago a medicinal spring was discovered 
here, and a bathing-house and other 
buildings have since been erected. The 
water is sulphureous and much frequented 
by gouty subjects ; but, as the distance 
from Hanover does not exceed two miles 
and a half, very few patients lodge here. 

The cool shade of the trees, and an 
excellent bottle of Chateau - Margaux, 



75 



were very acceptable after being exposed 
for several hours to a scorching heat. 

On the following day we took a walk 
in an opposite direction, through the 
gate of jUgidius, which faces the east, 
and, in about a quarter of an hour, came 
to an extensive sombre but beautiful fo- 
rest, the exclusive property of the citizens 
of the old town. It is said to extend 
above five miles from north to south, and 
forms a kind of semi-circular belt round 
the north-eastern side of Hanover. We 
entered it where it approaches closest to 
the town, near a tea-garden, much fre- 
quented by good company, called the 
New-House. A dry sandy carriage-road 
was before us, but we preferred a broad 
foot-path on our left. The soil is damp 
and moorish, but produces remarkable 
fine timber- trees. There were oaks equal 
in size to the main-mast of a man of war. 

E 2 



76 



A few years ago an oak-tree was wanted 
by the master of the royal water- works, 
at Herrenhausen, that should furnish a 
sound straight piece of timber, free from 
knots, forty-five feet in length, and three 
and a half in diameter, but none of the 
neighbouring forests contained a tree that 
answered this description, except the 
EUernriede, the wood I am speaking of. 
The magistrates charged 600 rix-dollars 
for it, which is rather more than £100 ster- 
ling, an immense sum in Germany for a 
single tree ; and twelve of the strongest 
horses were required to remove it, when 
deprived of its branches. We saw none, 
it is true, of such prodigious size, but 
there were many as straight and high as a 
full grown fir, and more than ten feet in 
circumference near the roots. We also 
passed by clusters of beech-trees of great 
dimensions, but the firs and pines were 



77 



not large, at least not so stately as those 
we saw on our journey from Cuxhaven. 
Some thousands of young trees had re- 
cently been planted, to make up, in the 
course of time, for the spoliations com- 
mitted by the French, and were in a 
very thriving condition. 

Nothing is more delightful than a walk 
in this beautiful wood on a hot day. 
Your path is everywhere dry ; you are 
not in danger of an attack from either 
man or beast ; and if the most profound 
tranquillity is now and then interrupted, 
it is only by the cuckoo or the song of 
the blackbird. We met not half a dozen 
people, though it was afternoon and Sun- 
day. Here and there you find a seat to 
rest upon, where you may read, or write 
verses descriptive of the gloom of a Ger- 
man forest, and no one will break the 
chain of your ideas. In about half an 



78 



hour our path brought us to another house 
of entertainment, called the List-Tower, 
near a common and a road, but of a class 
inferior to that which I have mentioned. 
We then turned to our right, but the 
path becoming fainter at every step, we 
lost ourselves and soon came to one of 
the thickest parts of the wood, where 
the rays of the sun had probably not pe- 
netrated for centuries. We were, how- 
ever, determined not to return the way 
we had come ; for we heard the distant 
firing of guns, and rightly concluded that 
some men were practising ball-firing near 
the place to which we were bent, and 
the report of their rifles guided us safely 
through this labyrinth, in which we met 
with no enmity but that proceeding from 
myriads of gnats, which incessantly an- 
noyed us. The place to which we came, 
and where we got a tolerable good bottle 



79 

of French white wine and some sand- 
wiches, is called the Horse-Tower. It 
stands upon a road leading to Hanover. 
In ancient times, when this forest was 
still more extensive than it is at present, 
and approached to the very gates of the 
town, it formed an important defence 
against the sudden inroads of the petty 
powers then almost constantly at war 
with one another; and this and similar 
towers served to watch the motions of 
the enemy, and to defend the defiles, and 
they have saved the capital more than 
once from being surprised and plun- 
dered. 

Almost all the open ground, in this 
neighbourhood, is occupied by gardens, 
which supply the citizens with vegetables. 

Having thus briefly described the im- 
mediate vicinity of the capital of the 
King of Great Britain's German domi- 



80 



nions, in three different directions, it is 
time I should say something respecting 
the royal chateau of Herrenhausen, and 
its neighbourhood. 

The village of Herrenhausen is si- 
tuated on a sandy, low, and uninteresting 
spot, about two miles and a half north- 
west of Hanover, and about half a mile 
from the right bank of the river Leine. 
George the First here built a palace 
for his summer residence, and added a 
garden to it, containing 128 acres. 

. We left our abode at an early hour, 
and crossed a beautiful stone bridge of 
one eliptic arch, over the river Leine, 
constructed about thirty years ago, under 
the inspection of Mr. MuUer, a distin- 
guished officer of the Hanoverian corps 
of engineers. After passing the Clover- 
gate, which is close by, we went along 
a clean paved road, with gardens and 



81 

country-houses on each side, and in about 
ten minutes arrived at the beginning of 
a most magnificent alley of lime-trees, 
which leads in a straight line to the 
chateau. It is, at least, a mile and a half 
in length, and formed of four rows of 
trees. The two on the left compose a 
walk appropriated exclusively for pedes- 
trians ; it is gravelled, kept very neat, 
and furnished with stone seats. The 
two rows on the right constitute a ride 
for horsemen, and the centre is a broad 
paved coach-road. The branches of the 
trees, on the right and left, are so closely 
entwined with each other as to afford 
shelter, both against a sudden shower and 
the scorching rays of the sun. The ter- 
mination of this arbor is not perceptible 
when you enter it, the distance being so 
great ; but the end of the coach-road is 
visible, and there the eye is fixed upon 

e3 



82 



the gilded dome of a new building, 
erected for the Duke of Cambridge. 
The effect is beautiful. 

On your right, as you enter this splendid 
avenue, you see a handsome stone build- 
ing, which is a cavalry barrack. It was 
occupied by a detachment of hussars of 
the guard. About a quarter of a mile 
farther, and about two hundred yards 
from the road, you are attracted by tl^e 
palace of Monbrilliant, where the gover- 
nor-general resides in the summer season. i 
It is a plain building, with a small park, j 
in the English style, and contains nothing 
that merits particular notice. On the 
left, about the same distance from the 
main road, the king's hunting establish- 
ment is kept, and about midway to 
Herrenhausen, on the same side of the 
way, you see the seat of the late Count 
Walmoden, a natural son of George the 



83 



Second. We went to view it. The grounds 
are laid out in the English fashion, but 
are too much crowded with trees, which 
produces a gloomy and melancholy effect. 
The house is unfinished, though began 
between thirty and forty years ago. It 
contains a valuable collection of pictures 
and marbles ; among the former are 
several by 

Rubens, 

Paul Veronese, 

Ludovico Carracci, 

Guido, 

Berghem, 

Vandyk, 

Teniers, 

Rembrandt, and 
Ruisdael. 

There are also several good copies, 
and I noticed one, the Woman taken in 
Adultery, of which I had seen the ori- 



84 



ginal but a few weeks before at the 
British Gallery. But I prefer the statues 
to the paintings ; the collection is ex- 
tensive, and contains several specimens 
of exquisite design and workmanship. 
Among them is 

A Perseus and Andromache, of white 

marble, as large as life, 
A Minerva, 
A Bacchus, 
A Genius with a Bird, 
A sleeping and winged Cupid, 
An Infant Bacchus with a Bunch of 

Grapes, 

A young Faun playing on the Flute, 

A Cupid and Psyche, 

A Satyr in a sitting Posture, and several 
Heads of Roman Emperors, in excel- 
lent preservation. There are likewise 
several statues of great merit by 
modern artists. 



85 



After having viewed every thing worth 
seeing here, we proceeded farther and 
came to the king's chateau and garden. 
In the former, the great hall, used as 
an orangerj^ particularly struck us. It 
is of an immense size ; and a thousand 
persons might be entertained in it. 

The garden is of an oblong shape, 
surrounded on three sides by a canal, 
and in the stiff French style, with broad, 
straight, gravelled walks; high clipped 
hedges, square grass plots with clumsy 
statues ; a grotto ; a theatre, ^nd jets d'eau. 
Of the latter there are five, four of which 
are but insignificant, but the principal 
one is magnificent, and said to be the 
finest in Europe, except that at Ver- 
sailles. The water is forced into the 
tube by machinery, from the river Leine, 
about half a mile distant, and when the 
whole pressure is used, the stream rises 



86 



perpendicularly one hundred and twenty 
feet, provided the wind be not high; 
but on ordinary occasions, when the 
whole forcing power is not employed, 
the water rises but eighty feet. The 
diameter appeared to be about nine or 
ten inches, certainly not less than nine. 
This spectacle is exhibited on Sundays 
and Wednesdays, during the summer 
months, from six to seven in the evening, 
and the public have free access. 

The theatre, which I have mentioned, 
has not been used for many years, and 
is now in a state of dilapidation. The 
bare canopy of heaven is its ceiling ; and 
full-grown trees and sprucely trimmed 
hedges are its scenery. It was originally 
ornamented with leaden figures, gilt or 
painted, I believe, but these the Gauls 
carried off. Two stone Gladiators, in 
the front of the stage, remain, however, 



87 



to this hour. An amphitheatre, built of 
brick, of the elevation and dimension of 
the pit of a London play-house, but with- 
out seats, accommodated the spectators. 
Plays were frequently acted here before 
George the Second, on the fine star-light 
evenings of summer. The present King 
of Sweden, when General Bernadotte, 
and other French Governors of Hanover, 
always evinced great partiality for this 
royal demesne, probably on account of 
the French taste which prevails in it; 
and they once took it into their heads to 
gratify themselves and the public with an 
histrionic exhibition, in imitation of those 
displayed before the British Monarch. 
Accordingly, the place was brushed up, 
and a day appointed for the show : the 
trees were hung with lamps ; actors and 
bands of musicians were ready ; the 
people came flocking in extraordinary 



88 



numbers, from the town and villages, 
with more than usual satisfaction painted 
on their countenances ; this excited sur- 
prise—inquiries were set on foot, when, 
lo! the day proved to be the 4th of 
J une, the birth-day of their venerable 
sovereign. The scene soon changed, 
and the only performers on the stage 
were a body of gens d^armes, to clear 
and shut up the garden. The French, 
while they stayed at Hanover, never 
thought of announcing another drama 
at Herrenhausen. 

We left this place as soon as the 
water-works had ceased playing, to wit- 
ness a spectacle still more lively and 
entertaining. 

The inhabitants of Germany are much 
attached to the amusement of shooting 
at a mark, and the men of every town 
and village assemble about midsummer. 



89 



and devote two or three days to this in- 
nocent and useful pastime ; and it is, 
perhaps, in some measure, owing to this 
custom that that country furnishes so many 
excellent riflemen. In the towns the 
citizens only enjoy the privilege of shoot- 
ing, of organizing themselves, and of 
appointing leaders, thus constituting a 
species of military body, which upon an 
emergency will guard the gates, or pre- 
serve tranquillity in the absence of regular 
troops. The citizens of the new town of 
Calenberg had formerly possessed this 
right of firing at targets in common with 
those of the old town ; but having the 
misfortune, one day, accidentally to kill 
a man, that privilege was taken from them, 
and not restored till lately. The govern- 
ment had permitted them to raise butts in 
an alley of lime-trees, near a plantation 
of mulberry-trees, at the back of the royal 



90 



buildings. It was the first day of these 
sports, which were to be continued for 
three days. They were firing at three 
targets, at unequal distances ; and their 
performance proved their great skill. 
Toward the close of day, the crowds of 
people assembled from all quarters were 
immense. They formed groups under the 
shade of the trees, or were listening at- 
tentively to the charming music of several 
Bohemian bands, or walking about in 
parties. Booths and shows abounded, the 
same as at a fair, and many of the infe- 
rior classes were dancing in places fitted 
up for that purpose; yet, there was no 
rioting or disorder of any kind, nor did 
I perceive a single intoxicated person ; 
and though several gens d'armes, here 
called land-dragoons, were ready, as well 
as a small detachment of infantry, to quell 
any sudden disturbance, there was no oc- 



91 



casion whatever for their services. The 
winter orangery of the palace, a large 
hall, about 270 feet long and 40 broad, 
was given up for the use of the public, 
while this kind of national feast lasted. 
It was handsomely illuminated with two 
rows of coloured lamps above the win- 
dows, and five chandeliers of a prodigious 
size, in the shape of a bell, made of the 
branches of trees, oak and orange leaves 
and flowers, thickly studded with lights, 
suspended from the ceiling. About a 
third part of the hall was railed off, and 
adapted for dancing, and the remainder 
formed a promenade, where the highest 
and lowest classes mixed indiscriminately. 
It was a gratifying sight. The wives and 
daughters of the first noblemen, elegantly 
attired, were walking without pride or 
formality among parties of peasantry ; and 
finer forms, and finer features could not 



92 



be met with any where. My attention 
was particularly rivetted by a group of 
female peasants, remarkably handsome, 
who stood a considerable time close by 
me; it consisted of a mother and her 
three daughters, the youngest apparently 
about eighteen, whose figure and counte- 
nance might have formed a model for the 
painter or sculptor. They were of slen- 
der make and very fair, and dressed in 
their holiday- clothes, of humble homespun 
yarn, dyed blue. Their heads displayed 
a profusion of beautiful light hair combed 
back from the forehead, and attempted to 
be concealed by a small purple silk cap, 
far back on the head, from which a 
profusion of ribbons, of the same colour 
was carelessly hanging down to their 
waist ; and round their snow-white necks 
was closely tied a broad black velvet 
band, with four strings of polished silver 



93 



beads of the size of small bullets. The 
whole costume was not less singular than 
elegant. I found they came from the 
northern or sandy part of the neighbour- 
ing district ; and it has frequently been 
remarked, that both the men and women, 
of that part, when young, are of a much 
lighter shape than the peasantry of the 
southern or hilly part. The difference of 
food has doubtless a great influence upon 
their physical constitution ; for in the sandy 
country the daily meal consists of almost 
nothing else than buck-wheat, a light 
food, little known in the hilly and more 
fertile districts. 

We returned to the town late in the 
evening, highly gratified with the day's 
excursion. 

The object of my journey being accom- 
plished, I was unwilling to return to 
England before I had taken a nearer 



94 



view of some of the neighbouring hills, 
whose woody tops were daily before me, 
and appeared so inviting. I was in ex- 
cellent health, therefore resolved to make 
the tour on foot. Accordingly, having 
provided myself with a map of that part 
of the country I intended to visit, I de- 
parted at the dawn of the morning. My 
way led through the Calenberg-Gate, 
which had just been opened, and the 
sentinel looked at me with some surprise, 
but asked no questions. 

Leaving the hill of Linden on my right, 
I passed through a turnpike-gate, and 
entered upon a causeway, which leads to 
the fortress of Hameln, upon the river 
Weser. The road, though constructed of 
good materials, was, in many parts, in a 
wretched condition, and most unpleasant 
to a pedestrian. I had here an ocular 
proof of the injury caused by the narrow 



95 



breadth of the wheels, and that no good 
roads can ever be expected in Germany, 
if the law remains silent upon that sub- 
ject. Some carts were passing, heavily 
laden with iron-ware from the Hartz- 
Mountains, yet, notwithstanding the great 
burdens conveyed by them, the wheels 
were barely two inches broad. This shape 
is adopted to avoid collateral friction in 
the ruts, some of which were half-a-foot 
deep ; but, on the other hand, the roads are 
terribly cut up ; and this continual grind- 
ing of a calcareous substance, had pro- 
duced an inconceivable quantity of dust, 
which is never removed, by scraping, after 
rain. A footpath, for the convenience of 
the farmer's wife or daughter, who, twice 
a week, has to carry eggs or butter to the 
market at Hanover, is not thought of, 
though one might easily be made. 

The country was everywhere smiling 



96 



with a most abundant harvest; wheat 
bore but a small proportion to the other 
sorts of grain, though so well adapted 
to the soil ; for bread made of rye is uni- 
versally eaten in the villages, and by all 
the lower classes of townspeople ; its 
place was, however, occupied by exten- 
sive fields of flax, of which the elegant 
blue flower produced a pleasing variety 
in the garb of the gentle hills. 

I had not been long on the way, be- 
fore I met a land- dragoon, a police-sol- 
dier, formed upon the model of the 
French gens d'armes. He was very well 
equipped and armed, and resembled, in 
every respect, an English light-horseman. 
These men were raised about four years 
ago, and have proved of eminent service 
in securing the roads ; for, after the ex- 
pulsion of the French from Germany, 
they were not safe for some time. At 



97 



present, robberies on the highway occur 
very seldom. The men provide their 
own horses, and are paid accordingly. 
They may stop any one who appears 
suspicious, and conduct him to the 
nearest magistrate. 

The ground, as I advanced, became 
gradually more elevated and diversified ; 
and the country was not unlike some of 
the finest parts of Kent, except that it 
wanted the green hedges of that beautiful 
county. The want of this ornament pro- 
duces a nakedness, and gives an air of 
poverty. I am, however, of opinion, that 
such extensive and uninterrupted fields 
are more favorable to agriculture than 
the high and close hedges of the south 
of England ; for that disease in corn 
called smut, so destructive to the hopes 
of the British farmer, is, comparatively, 
but little known here; which fact I 

F 



98 



attribute to the free scope of air on land 
not enclosed ; besides, the space occupied 
by hedges, merits some consideration, 
as well as the expense of keeping them 
in good order. But the land I saw did 
not appear to be cultivated with all the 
care which it, evidently, deserved ; neglect 
of proper drainage seemed to prevail every 
where. When agriculture shall be more 
honored than it is, in this part of the 
Continent, and men of large estates, and 
rank, will consult their country's interest 
as well as their own, and treat it as a 
science, such defects will rapidly disap- 
pear ; tiiat period I trust is not far distant. 

After a fatiguing walk of between 
three and four hours, I arrived at the 
Steinkrug, an inn, near the south-eastern 
extremity of the Deister- hills, where I 
resolved to rest awhile. I had met seve- 
ral carriages on the road with parties 



99 



going to Pyrmont, which was this season 
unusually crowded. One of these, con- 
sisting of four respectable-looking young 
men, each furnished with a tremendous 
tobacco-pipe, entered the room where I 
was at breakfast, and, ringing the bell, 
ordered a bottle of white wine, and some 
slices of raw smoked ham, which was 
quickly set before them, with some clean 
wooden platters, and coarse rye-bread. 
They appeared greatly to relish their re- 
past, which induced me also to venture 
upon a piece of raw ham. I dressed it 
as they did, with a good dose of pepper 
and salt, and found it by no means un- 
palatable. This is a dainty in high re- 
pute in the north of Germany, but less 
esteemed when you approach the Rhine. 

The good people of Hanover had told 
me a great deal of the fine prospects 
from this inn ; but, I confess, I was dis- 

f2 



100 



appointed. There are some potteries in 
the vicinity, and coals are also found. 
The upper strata, near the road-side, 
liad hitherto consisted of a coarse species 
of lime- stone, with vast quantities of 
shells imbedded in them, but near this 
spot they began to vary ; at least, the 
stone employed for mending the road, 
of which great heaps were piled up, 
was of a darkish blue colour, with white 
veins, extremely hard and of a close 
fine grain ; it strongly resembled black 
marble. I found one specimen which 
bore the impression of marine shells. 

The causeway, after leaving the inn, 
took a turn to the right into a wood, which 
afforded some protection from the scorch- 
ing heat of the sun, which, even at this 
early hour, became oppressive. Some 
of the oak-trees were of a prodigious 
size, and must have stood many centu- 



101 



ries. I measured the trunk of one, which 
was seventeen feet in circumference, and, 
apparently, quite sound. A company of 
soldiers might have encamped under its 
branches, almost low enough to be touched 
with the hand. The road, in this part, 
had been thoroughly repaired, and was 
excellent. In about half an hour the 
wood terminated, and I had before me a 
full view of the little town of Springe, 
at the bottom of the hill, but which ap- 
peared better at a distance than near. 
After passing through it, T soon quitted 
the causeway, and turned into a country 
road on my right ; and, as my map could 
no longer serve as a faithful guide, I had 
to trust entirely to the directions of the 
country people. My intention was to 
dine and sleep at the little town of Mun- 
der, and to that place my steps were 
bent; but, upon ascending a hill, I lost 



102 



my way among corn-fields, where the heat 
v/as insufferable. At Hanover, in the 
shade, Fahrenheit's thermometer, this 
day, stood at 92°. I was overcome with 
fatigue, and almost unable to proceed 
farther ; for, independently of the ex- 
cessive heat of the day, the greatest known 
for many years, which rendered the hu- 
man frame very unfit for exertion, my 
situation was rendered worse by having 
materially erred in the distances, in con- 
sequence of estimating the mile, upon my 
map, at about four and three quarters 
English, but which proved to be equal 
to not less than seven ; so that, instead 
of taking a pleasant walk of about four- 
teen miles, I had already completed the 
formidable distance of twenty. In this 
state of pain and perplexity I was not 
doomed, however, to remain long ; for a 
few minutes after I heard the bleating of 



103 



a flock of sheep, and the good-natured 
shepherd soon put me into the right way. 
I came shortly after to the brow of the 
eminence on which I had suffered so 
much, and beheld before me, in the deep 
valley below, the town of Munder, which 
appeared to my longing eye like a para- 
dise. Certain now that half an hour's 
additional toil would bring me under a 
friendly roof, I sat down in the shade of 
a few insolated trees, to take some rest, 
and contemplate the varied beauties of 
this enchanting scene. Wherever the 
^ye turned hills upon hills, universally 
crowned with the finest woods, bounded 
the horizon. A rivulet meandered through 
the middle of the valley, refreshing num- 
berless rich meadows, while the land, as 
it became elevated, exhibited the different 
tints of corn-fields in their several stages 
to maturity. From the turn which the 



104 



valley took, the little town appeared to 
be placed in the centre of a basin, of 
which the diameter might be seven or 
eight miles. Having somewhat reco- 
vered, I descended, and was soon in the 
heart of the place, which greatly disap- 
pointed me. It was barely superior to 
a large dirty village, and miserably paved. 
It is principally inhabited by potters, 
and great quantities of earthen vessels 
were drying before their doors. 

Exhausted as I was, my first care was 
to throw myself on a bed, and two or 
three hours sleep perfectly restored my 
wonted strength, and enabled me to 
accept the kind invitation of the mayor 
of the town to make his house my home. 
In the company of this venerable and 
kind-hearted gentleman I spent the rest 
of my evening, which fully compensated 
me for all my troubles in the morning* 



105 



This charming yalleyis well adapted for 
the seat of tranquillity and comfort. 
The scenery around is extremely beauti- 
ful. This is the opinion of every tra- 
veller who has a sense for the sublimities 
of nature ; it was visited a few weeks before 
me by some English officers, who were 
enraptured with it, as I was. The soil 
is of the richest kind ; the lower part of 
the valley feeds herds of cattle; the 
higher ground produces great quantities 
of corn ; and the hills abound in all sorts 
of timber- trees, excellent stone for build- 
ing, coals, lime, potters' earth, and salt- 
springs, the two latter close to the town. 
Game of all kinds is plentiful, and the 
citizen of M under enjoys the rare privi- 
lege of the chase, over an extent of 
many miles, and may kill any thing 
within reach of his gun. Secluded as 
this spot is from the common track of 

f3 



106 



mankind it is but little noticed ; which 
circumstance, and the frightful state of 
the roads in winter, proved of great ad- 
vantage to its inhabitants, during the 
French occupation, and they have suf- 
ferred much less than those of other 
districts, nearer to the great causeway 
that leads over Hameln into Westphalia 
and toward the Rhine. 

At day-break, of the following morn- 
ing, I set out on my return, accompanied 
by a guide. We soon struck into a foot- 
path, which conducted us to the top of 
a hill, so steep that I was forced to stop 
every five minutes to recover my breath ; 
but, when we reached the summit, 
which was covered with short grass, 
how glorious was the spectacle ! The 
valley, on the left, still appeared as if 
closed in ; but, on the right, it was visi- 
ble a considerable distance, and disco- 



107 



vered two or three other small towns, 
similar to that immediately below us, 
the high-pointed church-spires of which, 
as well as the red roofs of their houses, 
formed an agreeable contrast with the 
silvan scenery of the vicinity, and con- 
tributed to render the picture more en- 
chanting. We now entered a wood, 
chiefly consisting of beech, and kept 
gradually ascending, while the trees grew 
thicker and thicker, and all traces of a 
path seemed totally lost. After an hour's 
walk, however, we suddenly came to a 
long narrow glen, which bore the ap* 
pearance of having once been the bed 
of a river, in which a herd of young 
cattle was grazing. The herdsman, and 
his wife and children, were the only 
human beings we met ; they had built a 
hut near a brook, which shelters them 
as long as there is grass, when the whole 



108 



removes into winter- quarters. We had 
now again to ascend a hill higher than that 
we had passed, and thickly studded with 
beech and oak of great size ; but we 
were now in a path well trodden, and, 
at length, reached the highest point of 
this part of the ridge, from which there 
was a boundless view towards Hanover 
and the circumjacent country. At this 
spot I dismissed my guide, who assured 
me I should find no difficulty in reaching 
the village at the foot, which I could 
clearly perceive. I had no means of 
ascertaining the height of this part of the 
hill ; but I judge it to be from 1000 to 
1200 feet. The upper strata consisted 
of a red sand-stone, on which thousands 
of firs were growing. Here I rested 
some time, to enjoy the prospects,^ and 
to refresh myself with dewberries, with 
which the ground was covered. The 



109 



atmosphere was so pure and transparent, 
that objects, at a very great distance, 
could be clearly discerned ; and it is this 
circumstance which adds such splendor 
to the rural views on the Continent. 
^England affords exquisite landscapes ; 
but it happens but seldom that the eye 
can master all their beauties. Here I 
could distinguish, without any effort, 
the trunk of the venerable oak five miles 
off. The path, as my guide had said, 
grew, by degrees, very comfortable ; 
and, about seven o'clock, I quitted this 
part of the Deister-hills, of which I 
shall always think with pleasure, and 
soon after entered the village of Wen- 
ningsen. By crossing this hill I had 
shortened the distance to Hanover, 
about four miles. I stopped at this 
place to breakfast ; it is rather of a 
superior class, containing a parish church. 



110 



and the remains of a religious establish- 
ment for nuns. The neighbouring hills 
contain vast numbers of deer and wild 
boars. 

The rest of my way home afforded 
nothing remarkable. As far as the eye 
could reach, I beheld nothing but villages 
and corn-fields, and busy groups of men 
and women employed in reaping. 



Ill 



CHAP. III. 

JOURNEY FROM HANOVER THROUGH 
WESTPHALIA. 



I left Hanover, on my return to Eng- 
land, the 31st of July, at three o'clock 
in the afternoon, by the common post- 
coach. I preferred this mode of travel- 
ling", though aware of its inconveniences, 
to a private carriage, on account of the 
opportunity it would afford me of seeing 
and conversing with different characters ; 
for, deprived as I was, of the society of 
my young friend, the thought of wander- 
ing about, alone, in a foreign country, 
without a human being near me with 
whom I could exchange a word, was in- 
tolerable. 



112 



The improved Hanoverian post-wag- 
gon, or post-coach, is a close carriage, 
not very dissimilar to one of Mr. Polito's 
machines for removing wild beasts from 
one fair to another, v^ith this difference, that 
it has a square air-hole on each side, about 
the size of a coach- window, which, in a 
shower of rain, or snow, may be closed 
by a leathern curtain. It is generally 
made to hold nine persons, and the seats 
are numbered, and he who applies first 
for a place, has number one, which is 
marked on a printed ticket he receives 
upon paying, containing certain regula- 
tions to be observed on the road, and an 
enumeration of the fees which the driver, 
the guard, who always travels inside, and 
other attendants, have a right to demand. 
The body of the carriage does not move 
on springs, but the seats hang on straps, 
and thus the rough motion of this precious 



113 



equipage is a little softened. Yet this 
was the best and lightest with which I was 
blessed for some time. 

At the Calenberg-gate, the non-com- 
missioned officer on duty, a very tall 
soldier-like looking man, came out of the 
guard-house with a slate in his hand, on 
which he civilly requested me to write 
my name, &c. and, finding I was going to 
England, said with an air of exultation, 
I was there once, and wish I was there 
now. 

Though we had but two horses we 
moved at a quick rate, and the way being 
level, I had no reason to complain. We 
passed through the village of Limmer, 
upon the banks of the Leine, and kept 
for some time upon a sandy road, it was 
not, however, unpleasant ; for, at a short 
distance on our left, the ground rose a 
little, and was occupied by a small wood 



114 



belonging to the village of Hardenberg. 
Between this spot, and the road, are the 
remains of a fortified camp ; for, about 
two centuries since, during the religious 
wars which desolated a great part of Ger- 
many, a battle was fought here between 
Tilly, at the head of the Imperialists, 
and the Protestants under the Danish Ge- 
neral Obentrout, who was defeated, and 
slain about a mile farther, near the village 
of Seize. The spot where he fell is 
marked by a monument, in the form of a 
pyramid, about fifteen feet high. It con- 
tains a Latin inscription, mentioning the 
occurrence; but it is difficult to make out 
the letters, many of them being effaced. 

We arrived, towards evening, at Wuns- 
dorf, a market-town, in which some ar- 
tillery-men were quartered. I saw nothing 
remarkable except the church, some of 
the Gothic ornaments of which proved its 



115 



great age. The soil hereabout is some- 
what sandy ; for the country borders upon 
that immense arid track, which I have 
before described, and which extends to 
the coast. On our left I had still a glimpse 
of the Deister-hills, of which I now took 
a long and last adieu. The ground, as 
we were bending northwards, became at 
every step more barren ; and, on our left, 
we saw some extensive plantations of 
firs; but the aspect soon changed; we 
quitted, for a moment, the Hanoverian 
territory, and entered that of the Prince 
of Buckebourg. A tolerable high road, 
constructed with great labour, conducted 
us through a wood of young forest-trees, 
and upon regaining the Hanoverian do- 
minions, which we did in less than an 
hour, we found ourselves in a most ro- 
mantic country, for we were near Reburg, 
a celebrated watering-place. On our 



116 

right, in a flat moorish region, was a 
beautiful lake, that of Steinhuder, appa- 
rently about three miles broad, and six 
or seven long, but which, evidently, had 
been of great extent and depth at some 
remote period of the world, and looked 
like the remains of that part of the ocean, 
which has doubtless once covered all the 
low and sandy ground of the north of 
Germany. On our left was a woody hill, 
at the foot of which the medicinal spring 
rises ; and here were the bathing and 
assembly houses, full of visitors from the 
neighbouring districts. Very pleasant 
walks of lime-trees, in various directions, 
furnish agreeable promenades for the pa- 
tients ; while the mere loungers may 
resort to the hill, or the lake, upon which 
the beams of the setting sun were reflect- 
ing as upon a mirror. The centre of this 
sheet of water contains a small fort, 



117 



upon an island, artificially raised about 
half a century ago, by order of a Count 
of Buckebourg, to whom this mere partly 
belongs, but the thing is more ornamental 
than useful. 

By break of day we were in the Prussian 
territory, upon the right bank of the We- 
ser, which is here as broad as the Thames 
near Westminster-bridge ; but, in this 
part, not at all interesting ; the ground, on 
both sides of the river, particularly the 
left, to a considerable distance, being flat 
and chiefly converted into meadows. On 
the right, where we were travelling, there 
is some excellent land, which appeared 
to be well cultivated, and the road was, 
in general, pretty good. But in propor- 
tion as we drew nearer to Minden, we 
obtained a clearer view of the adjacent 
hills, which produce some of the grandest 
scenery in nature. My eyes had been 



118 



riveted for some time upon a tremendous 
chasm, in one of the highest parts of the 
ridge, and I was pondering upon the 
cause of it. Was it the effect of an 
earthquake ? — Was the mountain com- 
posed of a calcareous or argillaceous 
substance ? And was it rent by desiccation 
in consequence of its transition from a 
soft to a hard state ? These were questions 
which I was debating with myself, when, 
arriving upon a spot rather elevated, I 
beheld, to my utter astonishment, the river 
rushing through this aperture. It was the 
Porta Westphalias I had before me ! The 
rock, on the right bank, called Jacob's 
Hill, is almost perpendicular, and rises 
several hundred feet above the level of 
the water. About half-way up, a house of 
entertainment has been erected, from 
which the view over the surrounding 
country and the stream, bursting forth at 



119 



your very feet, must be indescribably 
beautiful. In the latter part of this spring-, 
the quantity of water brought down, by 
this river, from the mountains of Germany, 
had been so great as to inundate all the 
low land to the north of Minden, which 
is described as having borne the appear- 
ance of an island in the midst of an 
inland sea. What a moment for a land- 
scape painter upon J acob's Hill ! 

It was eight o'clock when we arrived 
at Minden ; we had, therefore, been 
seventeen hours in travelling over a space 
of about forty-five miles, and were told 
that the coach was not again to move 
till four in the afternoon. 

This is a small, dirty looking town, con- 
taining about 5000 inhabitants, composed 
of narrow streets and old houses, and 
would be very dull but for the great num- 
ber of military quartered in it. The gar- 



120 



rison consisted of two battalions of in- 
fantry, and four companies of artillery 
and miners. They are now busily em- 
ployed in restoring the fortifications, and 
making it a place of importance. It lies 
almost entirely on the left bank. On the 
right, with which it is connected by a 
long bridge, many gardens had been de- 
molished to make room for the outworks ; 
and a formidable bridge-head seemed 
nearly completed. 

Minden is celebrated in history for a 
decisive victory gained by Prince Ferdi 
nand of Brunswick, over the French, 
under Contades, on the 1st of August, 
1759. The field of battle is on the low 
ground, on the left bank of the Weser, 
at no great distance from the town. Some 
hillocks were pointed out to me in the 
morning as the burying-place of part of 
the slain. It happened to be the anni- 



121 



versary of that memorable event, and the 
conversation, at dinner, was partly taken 
up by it ; and, among other anecdotes, I 
heard that of a little peasant girl, who, 
while quietly sitting in her father's cot- 
tage, at a considerable distance from the 
contending armies, had one of her legs 
carried ofl* by a cannon-ball. A small 
pension was allowed her ever after. She 
was still alive, and had, that morning, been 
seen in the town, going to receive the 
money. 

I was much pleased with such of the 
Prussian officers as came under my ob- 
servation ; there was an urbanity of man- 
ners in their address, which proved them 
to be gentlemen, at the same time that 
their gait, and air, plainly told that they 
had encountered other company than that 
of a drawing-room. One of them, of the 
rank of field-officer, and already somewhat 

G 



122 



advanced in years, appeared to take great 
delight in conversing with me about Eng- 
land, of whose national character, insti- 
tutions, and military exploits, he spoke 
in just terms of admiration ; but regretted 
that so estimable a nation should so fre- 
quently be swayed by illiberal notions with 
respect to foreigners, and allow no merit 
to any one, unless he was born a Briton. 
I startled at the observation, and begged 
to know how he applied that remark. 
Look at the newspapers, pointing to a 
heap of them, on the table, you will find 
that we cannot even raise a monument 
at Planchenois without exciting a sneer 
oh your side of the water. I found, in- 
deed, that the unlucky paragraph, which 
had given such umbrage, was copied from 
the Courier, and remembered to have read 
it in London. This brave man was vi- 
sibly hurt by it ; I, therefore, endea- 



123 



voured to convince him that such senti 
ments ought not to be attributed to the 
British government, which, as well as 
the nation in general, had too just an idea 
of the glorious exertions of the Prussians 
and their immortal deeds in the late war, 
to be for one moment led astray by the 
individual opinion of a diurnal writer. 
If the services of Blucher, and his army, 
at Waterloo, are estimated, perhaps, 
too low in England, the Prussians, on 
the other hand, are very well inclined to 
attribute the whole glory of that eventful 
day to themselves ; and it appears to be 
a rooted opinion among them, that, but 
for their timely aid, the 18th of June 
would have terminated as the 16th did at 
Ligny. One morning as I was sauntering 
about in one of the little towns of West- 
phalia, I have forgotten which, my curi- 

G 2 



124 



osity was attracted by a string of ballads 
hung up for sale; very many of them 
dwelt upon heroic subjects, and there 
were several versions of the history of La 
Belle Alliance, yet Wellington and his 
brave companions were not once men- 
tioned. But this little vanity is almost 
excusable in so martial a people, to whom 
the world is so much indebted for the 
la„rge share they had in restoring the 
liberty of Europe. It was delightful to 
hear, as I did, on one occasion, a party 
of youths speak of their campaign against 
France, their almost incredible hardships 
and privations, and see the enthusiasm 
and fire that darted from their eyes. 
Surely, the sons of Sparta, in the best 
times of that republic, could not have 
appeared to greater advantage. The age 
of one, who had marched from Branden- 



125 



burg to the interior of France, in 1814, 
could not then have exceeded fourteen 
years ; he was even now but a stripling. 

Though Minden is a fortress, no ques- 
tions were asked at the gates upon en- 
tering and leaving it, nor did any police- 
oflScer require to see my passport. This 
symptom of liberty is very agreeable, and 
cannot be sufficiently estimated by those 
who have never quitted the British Islands. 

We were not long before the road 
gradually began to rise, and, towards 
night, came to the summit of the ridge of 
hills on the left of theWeser. We passed 
under a rock, probably not less than 400 
feet high, from which blocks of stone of 
a prodigious weight had been hurled 
across the road into the adjoining fields 
below, to be used upon the works of the 
fortification. Not long since, one of the 
men employed upon this business had 



126 



engaged, for a trifling wager, to run past 
the spot on the road, over which those 
masses were bounding one after another, 
with indescribable velocity ; he escaped, 
then growing bolder, ventured a second 
time, and was equally successful, but the 
third time was caught and dashed into 
atoms. 

Our journey from Minden towards Ham 
offered but little worthy of notice ; we 
passed through several small towns, most 
of which had anciently been fortified, and 
their outward appearance was nearly simi- 
lar. The town of Bielefeld, however, 
which carries on a considerable trade in 
linen, displayed more manifest signs of 
ease and comfort than the rest ; the houses 
had a neater outside, and the hedges, 
round the citizens' gardens, were carefully 
trimmed, and more ornamental than usual. 
The country, in general, continued to be 



127 



sandy, and, consequently, rye and buck- 
wheat formed the chief products ; here and 
there, however, the scene was enlivened 
by some small forests of oak and beech. 
The villages, through which we passed, 
were generally wretched ; and their inhabi- 
tants had nothing of that cheerful open 
look which I had observed in Hanover ; 
there was a heaviness and melancholy 
upon their faces, which struck me forcibly, 
particularly among the female peasantry ; 
but they appeared to be religious, and 
as early as five o'clock in the morning of 
the following day, Sunday, they came 
flocking into Neukirchen, to hear mass ; 
for the greater number of the Westpha- 
bans are Catholics. I also no longer ob- 
served any sentences from Scripture over 
the cottage or barn, probably because the 
.Catholic was not permitted to read the 
Bible. 



128 



Oh Sunday afternoon, the 2d of August, 
we stopped at a village, settled by Fre- 
deric II. of Prussia, called Fredericsdorf. 
It is situated between Neukirchen and 
Lippstat, on a sandy plain, certainly not 
designed, by nature, for the seat of a thri- 
ving colony ; and it is difficult to conceive 
what could have induced that Monarch to 
select a spot, like this, for the erection of 
a village. It consists of two long streets 
which intersect each other at right angles. 
Near the centre stands the parish church, 
which serves for both Catholics and Pro- 
testants. To this no objection is made by 
either party, yet they will not use the 
same bell; and that, belonging to the 
Catholics, is ornamented with a crucifix. 
The Protestant part of the inhabitants 
had just finished its devotion, and was 
indiscriminately mixed with the Catholics 
going to perform their rites. They were 



129 



all cleanly dressed ; but their figures and 
countenances were the least prepossessing 
I had yet met with. Its first inhabitants 
are said not to have consisted of the best 
characters ; and Fredericsdorf, for a long 
time after its foundation, was in but in- 
different repute. But I was assured that 
the different sects live in great harmony, 
and that disputes, on account of religion, 
are unknown. 

The roads, in this part, were still ex- 
tremely bad, and will remain so till paved. 
We passed over a common, on which, one 
day, last winter, the coach stuck fast. The 
guard went to the nearest village, to pro- 
cure an additional team ; he returned with 
it after a considerable lapse of time ; but, 
during his absence, a sudden and severe 
frost had set in, and the wheels could not 
be extricated without the aid of pioneers ; 

a waggon was therefore sent for, which 

g3 



130 



easily made its way over the ice, and the 
passengers, nine in number, of whom some 
were ladies, had to spend the night upon 
straw at a village several miles distant. 
It was now summer, and the roads were, 
comparatively, excellent, yet, to one ac- 
customed to travel in England, or even 
in the Netherlands, no journey could be 
more irksome ; the covered post- waggon 
jolted most horribly, whenever the road 
became a little rough ; and our progress 
was at the rate of about two miles and a 
half the hour; the inside exhibited an im- 
penetrable cloud of tobacco-smoke night 
and day ; for my good-natured compa- 
nions, who were all Prussians, and, I will 
allow them the merit, men of education, 
seemed to delight in nothing so much as 
smoking, and that at a time when the ther- 
mometer was at 80°. Their conversation, 
however, made some amends ; mos t of 



131 



them had served against France, though 
not all military men by profession, and 
they abounded in interesting anecdote. 

At day-break of the 3d of August we 
came to Soest, which is said to have 
once been a place of considerable extent, 
but is now contracted and in a miserable 
condition. T never in my life passed 
through a town equally wretched, at least 
in appearance ; it had once been fortified, 
like all the towns in this district, but, 
both rampart and wall v/ere in total 
decay, A young Prussian, one of my 
fellow-travellers, and myself, took a walk 
upon the rampart; a solitary sentinel, the 
only symptom of a garrison in the place, 
who, if he had not been a Prussian, I should 
have strongly suspected of having been 
asleep, started out of his box in amaze- 
ment upon seeing two persons, one in 
the military uniform of his sovereign. 



132 



pace up and down at so unusual a time ; 
but the man soon recollected himself. 

About noon we arrived at Ham, the 
capital of the county of Mark. It is 
situated upon the river Lippe, and con- 
tains from four to five thousand inhabi- 
tants. There are many new houses in it ; 
and the town altogether is handsomer 
than any I had seen since leaving Minden. 
The country also began to improve both 
in soil and aspect, and we here and 
there saw fields of wheat and flax. It 
was the anniversary of the King of 
Prussia's birth, and a part of the garrison, 
.consisting of a detachment of Westpha- 
lian landwehr grenadiers, a chosen body, 
under orders to proceed to Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle in the following month, were in- 
spected in their new clothing. It is 
impossible to see finer men, or any better 
exercised than these ; their marchings and 



133 

handling of arms were performed with 
wonderful precision ; their whole equip- 
ment was excellent ; and their blue cloth- 
ing was by no means coarse ; few of the 
men appeared to be more than twenty- 
five years of age, and many of them 
wore medals, having served against France. 
Their great coats were slung across their 
bodies in front, which, I think, is an im- 
provement ; for, if the folds of a coat are now 
and then a protection against musket-balls, 
it is more honorable to be thus defended 
in front than in the back. There is 
something very prepossessing in the ap- 
pearance of a Prussian regiment of foot, 
which I attribute, partly, to the simplicity 
of their uniform, for there is no orna- 
ment upon it, and the whole is calculated 
for service. After stopping about two 
hours, we continued our journey ; and, 
to my great joy, we were now travelling 



134 



in a diligence ; that is, a coach moving 
on springs. It was clumsy and heavy, 
yet a thousand times preferable to the 
covered waggon in which I had been 
moving three days and nights. We 
left Ham between one and two 
o'clock, and, at six, arrived at Unna, a 
small town agreeably situated upon an 
eminence, and surrounded with a ditch 
and rampart, but in a neglected state. 
The country, which had been sensibly 
improving, here became even romantic. 
About a mile from it we passed by the 
most extensive salt-works I had ever seen 
in England or Germany ; they are con- 
ducted at the expense of the Prussian 
government. Almost every house was or- 
namented with branches of trees and 
garlands of flowers, in honor of Frede- 
ric William, and a considerable num- 
ber of the superior classes of the towns- 



135 



people and inhabitants of the neighbour- 
ing districts were proceeding, in carriages, 
to a public ball, at the Louisa Bath as- 
sembly-house, near the salt-works, a new 
establishment named after the late Queen 
of Prussia. The ladies were dressed in 
the English fashion, and flowers and 
shawls constituted their chief ornaments. 
We also met parties of burgeois on foot, 
some in boots, going to the same place 
of amusement; and though attired in 
their best clothes, they could not divest 
themselves of their constant companion, 
the tobacco-pipe, with which they were 
fumigating the streets, in spite of the 
injunction of the magistrate, posted up 
at the town -gate, not to smoke in the 
open street upon pain of paying a fine 
of two Prussian dollars. 

I was glad to perceive these demonstra- 
tions of loyalty, but was told, by a Prus- 



136 



sian gentleman, that sentiments equally 
desirable do not prevail in every part of 
Prussian Westphalia ; and this fact was 
corroborated by others. The reason is 
obvious : — upon the overthrow of Jerome's 
kingdom, a great number of individuals, 
who served that usurper, lost their places 
to make room for more loyal subjects. It 
is these and their connexions who now 
clamour and spread dissatisfaction. And as 
the great body of the people, during its suf- 
ferings, comparing its former condition 
with the present, had fondly expected 
that the day of the restoration would open 
the door to immediate comfort and hap- 
piness, and finding, when that auspicious 
moment actually arrived, instead of such 
bliss, burdens as heavy, and a conscrip- 
tion equally severe, and these hardships, 
aggravated by bad harvests, and an unusual 
stagnation of trade, were but too ready 



137 



to attribute this state of things to a wrong 
cause. But an abundant harvest has filled 
the storehouse with the bounty of heaven, 
and a continued state of tranquillity will 
re-open the sources of trade and render 
conscription unnecessary, or, at least, not 
burdensome. Time, therefore, will heal 
these people's wounds, and render them 
good-humoured . 

We had to wait a long time for our 
horses, on account of the ball, which had 
put most of the post-horses in requisition ; 
at length, when nearly dark, we set out, 
and our party was now greatly increased, 
by the arrival of a protestant clergyman, 
and his wife and two daughters, and the 
diligence was crammed to excess. As 
soon, therefore, as we were clear of the 
town, not wishing to be suffocated by 
clouds of tobacco-smoke, for my new 
friend was as fond of the pipe as the rest, 



138 



and the road being fine, and the evening 
beautiful, I quitted the coach, with an 
intention of making a good way on foot, 
in which I was imitated by two of my 
companions, and our pedestrian excursion 
afforded not less amusement to ourselves 
than to the rest of the travellers, who pre- 
ferred riding, for one of the two gentlemen, 
though but young, was extremely corpu- 
lent, and his exertion to keep up with us 
caused not a little fatigue to him, espe- 
cially as our postillions, for we had two, 
and six horses, contrary to their usual 
habit, took it into their heads to move at 
rather a brisk rate. — At length, however, 
our fat fellow-traveller was obliged to give 
in, and it being then nearly dark, we also 
resumed our seats. 

We were now on a regular high road, 
the best I had seen for some time ; sandy 
commons no longer wearied our eyes.; 



139 



and, instead of rye and buck-wheat, we 
had alternately extensive fields of wheat, 
flax, and beans, before us ; the landscape 
kept on improving at every step, and, at 
the dawn of the morning of the 4th of 
August, we crossed the Roer, and found 
ourselves in one of the most picturesque 
countries upon earth ; we were within a 
short distance of Hagen, a very neat and 
opulent manufacturing town, surrounded 
by steep and high hills, clothed with 
trees, forming a circular valley not more 
than four or five miles in diameter; — its 
neat white houses, contrasted with the 
green foliage of the forests, from which 
the rising sun was rapidly dissipating 
the clouds of exhalation in which they had 
been concealed during the night, formed 
a most enchanting picture. Indeed, the 
mountainous country, which we were now 
entering, appeared more like a paradise 



140 



than an earthly scene ; for miles and miies, 
as far as the eye could reach, hill suc- 
ceeded to hill, all crowned with the 
finest timber-trees, and, wherever the 
ground was favorable, we saw gentle- 
men's seats, or the white cottage of the 
manufacturer; and this alternation of 
hill and dale, of villages and hamlets, 
continued till we arrived at Elberfelt, in 
the vicinity of which the sublimity of the 
scene is past description ; and I was not 
surprised to hear that landscape painters 
had spent days and weeks in these regions 
to make sketches. 

At the bottom of these hills lies the 
town of Elberfelt, the neatest and most 
cheerful place I had seen since setting my 
feet on German ground. It is evidently ..- ^ 
of modern date ; the houses are all hand- 
some and painted, and the streets very 
clean. Near the river, which descends 



141 



from the hills, and runs through the 
town, great quantities of manufactured 
goods were bleaching; for this place is 
almost entirely supported by the loom. 
The Ex-Marshal Soult was living here 
in exile, and, if the spot is of his own 
choice, he must be a man of taste. From 
hence the Alpine scenery disappears, and 
towards Dusseldorf we had nothing but 
an open champaign country, somewhat 
sandy, but still very agreeable. 

Dusseldorf is the capital of the Dutchy 
of Berg, now belonging to Prussia. The 
number of inhabitants is estimated at 
about 15,000. It is much improved by 
the dismantling of its fortifications, and 
when the new plantations, upon their site, 
have attained some degree of maturity, it 
will have to boast of some charming 
promenades. Upon the whole, the town 
may be called handsome. 



142 



After supper I took leave of my fellow- 
travellers. The worthy clergyman and 
his amiable family had left us in the hills, 
which I much regretted. He was one of 
the best-natured men it had ever fallen to 
my lot to become acquainted with ; both 
he and his family were evidently attached 
to me, and I was not surprised upon part- 
ing to receive a thousand blessings from 
them, and an invitation to their house if 
ever I should come into their part of the 
country. I was also sorry to lose the 
company of a young Prussian gentleman, 
who accompanied me all the way from 
Minden ; he belonged to the medical staff 
of the Prussian army, and was going to 
Coblenz. There is something distressing 
in parting with those whom we have no 
prospect of ever meeting again, particu- 
larly if they merit our friendship and 
attachment. I had been very fortunate. 



143 



for, from the hour of my landing at Cux- 
haven to the period of my crossing the 
Rhine, I met with not one individual of 
whom I had reason to complain, not even 
the postillions, against whom so much is 
generally said by travellers, and I found 
the people every where good-natured, and 
always ready to oblige me. 



144 



CHAP. IV. 

JOURNEY FROM THE RHINE TO BRUSSELS. 

At four o'clock, onWednesday morning, 
the 6tli of August, we left Dusseldorf in 
a new Prussian diligence, heavy in its 
form and construction, but, at the same 
time, much neater and more convenient 
than those in which I had hitherto travelled. 
After proceeding about two miles we came 
to the Banks of the Rhine, which is here 
a very considerable river, not less than 
1500 feet across, as nearly as I could 
measure with the eye. Its shores, in this 
neighbourhood, are low, and the country 
exhibits no features particularly striking. 
The water was flowing very gently, and 
its motion was hardly perceptible, for 



145 



there was not a breath of air, and so 
transparent that the bottom could be seen 
at a great depth. On our left, on the 
German side, I perceived the remains of 
several batteries, close to the river, which 
had formerly been raised here, doubtless 
for the purpose of preventing a landing 
from the opposite side. We were ferried 
over in a large flat-bottomed boat, and 
arrived on the left bank without any ac- 
cident. The ground, for a mile or two, 
continued low and sandy, and we soon 
reached Neuss, a small fortified town be- 
longing to Prussia. It contains some 
good houses in the principal street, and 
many inns, or rather gin-shops. 

The country, between this place and 
Juliers, was rather sandy, and uninterest- 
ing, but every where cultivated, and, ap- 
parently, with great care. The villages, 
however, were mean, and none of them 

H 



146 



bore the outward marks of prosperity 
In some parts, tlie high road was tole- 
rable ; in others, new ones were ma- 
king, which, if paved, will be very good. 
The wheels of the waggons and carts 
were much broader than those in Ger- 
many, and many circumstances indicated 
that the preservation of the high roads 
had attracted the particular attention of 
the government. We met many carriers 
upon the road ; but very few of the 
peasantry. This was, perhaps, owing to 
the harvest, which was everywhere gather- 
ing, and for which purpose a great pro- 
portion of women were employed. 

Though our carriage and horses were 
good, it was not till one o'clock that we 
arrived at Juliers, owing, in a great 
measure, to the dissolute characters of 
our driver and guard, for both were more 
intent upon dram- drinking and romping 



147 



with the women at the different public- 
houses at which they stopped, than upon 
forwarding the passengers under their 
care. I felt this neglect the more sen- 
sibly, as the cabriolet, which is an ad- 
ditional body attached to the front of the 
coach, and which holds three persons, 
was allotted to me, and which, in a fine 
summer's day, is a very pleasant place for 
one who, like myself, wished to view the 
country, but which this day, the heat being 
between 80 and 90"", was intolerable. 

Juliers, as we approach it from the 
Rhine, appears small and insignificant as 
a fortress, but the works are low and 
strong, and great additions were making 
to them, for which purpose many of the 
gardens in the suburbs had been destroyed. 
It is, however, commanded, on the side 
towards France, by some elevated ground. 
Upon entering the gates we met several 

h2 



148 



parties of criminals, condemned to hard 
labour. They were mostly young, and 
had much the appearance of military men. 
They were heavily ironed, but seemed to 
enjoy good health. We met but few 
people in the streets, which are spacious 
and clean, and the town altogether looked 
empty and melancholy. After a dinner, 
which was none of the best, nor served 
up in the neatest style, we set out for 
Aix-la-Chapelle. German is still the 
language of the country here ; French, 
however, begins, already, to be under- 
stood and spoken by many of the middling 
classes. 

The country, as we approached Aix- 
la-Chapelle, became, at every step, more 
picturesque ; the eye everywhere en- 
counters fertile valleys and hills, either 
cultivated or covered with wood, and the 
roads are superb. In spite of a broiling 



149 



sun, I was in the best mood for enjoying 
the beauties of nature, which everywhere 
surrounded us, but was constantly inter- 
rupted by the diabolical temper of our 
new driver, who was the very reverse of 
the good-natured German postillion of the 
right bank of the Rhine. He was a stout 
ill-looking fellow, from Juliers, and had 
very much the appearance of an assassin. 
My fellow-traveller in the cabriolet, a 
Prussian, who was going to Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, for his health's sake, had reproved 
him for some act of rudeness, and there 
was no end to his gesticulations and voci- 
ferations ; indeed, the rascal was not 
satisfied with words only, for he attempted 
several times a blow, with his whip, at 
my companion's face, under the pretence 
of striking his horses ; I, therefore, pre- 
vailed upon the Prussian to exchange 
seats with a young gentleman in the coach 



150 



who wished to ride outside ; this, for the 
present, made the fellow quiet ; but, soon 
after, reaching a public-house, both he 
and the guard, though already half in- 
toxicated, took additional doses of gin 
and beer, which, with the effect of the 
heat, rendered them senseless and furious. 
In this state, the guard suddenly mounted 
the saddle-horse, and, seizing the reins 
and whip, set off at a gallop, leaving the 
drunken postillion tippling at the inn, and 
I expected every instant to see the coach 
precipitated down the steep banks where 
the road was raised, or dashed against 
some post or tree. In this manner we 
had got to within sight of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
when the coachman, stripped to his shirt, 
came furiously racing after us on a poney. 
The scene that ensued may easily be 
imagined. All that foul language could 
do was tried, and I wondered the business 



151 



ended without coming to blows. I was 
very much vexed at this scandalous con- 
duct, for we were now arrived upon an 
eminence from which the venerable city, 
with the heavenly scenery near it, gilded 
by the setting sun, suddenly burst upon 
us in extraordinary splendor. 

This celebrated town, the residence 
and burying-place of Charlemagne, was 
founded, in the early part of the second 
century, by the Roman praetor Serenus 
Granus, and was called by the Romans 
Aquis Granum. It is situated in a beau- 
tiful valley, and the amenity of the spot 
and its warm baths will always give it 
distinction. It contains near 30,000 in- 
habitants, many of whom are engaged in 
manufactures, particularly cloth. The 
streets, in general, are not spacious ; and 
it is disagreeable to walk in them, as no 
part is appropriated for pedestrians only. 



15^ 



Most of the houses, which are old, have 
their gable-ends towards the street, and 
the roofs are universally covered with 
slate. But there are several religious 
and public buildings, which will interest 
the lover of Gothic architecture, such as 
the cathedral, in which the Emperors of 
Germany were crowned, and the town- 
house. The strict Catholic will value 
Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen, as it is called 
by the Germans, on account of the many 
relics preserved in it. More than 100,000 
strangers are said to have resorted to it 
about three weeks before my arrival, to 
have a sight of them, when publicly ex- 
hibited. But were I to reside here, I 
should more frequently view the charming 
country around from the Loysberg, than 
those badges of superstition for which I 
have no relish. Upon that romantic hill, 
which is but a short distance from the 



153 



city, and seen far off, Bonaparte had 
erected an obelisk and dedicated it to 
himself, the Great Emperor of France 
and King of Italy, ^' but when his majesty 
fell, in April, 1814, it was thought proper 
that his monument should fall likewise, 
so they threw it down the precipice. The 
Prussians, however, upon taking formal 
possession of their provinces of the Rhine, 
restored it, but with a new dedication to 
Science and German Valor." 
On the following day, after breakfast- 
ing, and discharging my bill, which was 
very moderate, I repaired to the post- 
office, to pursue my journey by the dili- 
gence. I had taken my place the prece- 
ding evening, and it was but by chance 
I secured it ; for, an old gentleman who 
had accompanied me from Dusseldorf, 
entered the office at the very instant I 
did; and there being but one number 

h3 



154 



disengaged, the Prussian clerk, after 
some debating, fairly decided, that we 
should draw lots, when I proved the more 
fortunate of the two. I was happy, how- 
ever, to see the old man accommodated 
this morning with a comfortable seat, 
inside, one of the passengers having 
stayed behind. 

It was here I met the first English 
party of travellers : it consisted of three 
gentlemen from Yorkshire, of whom one 
was a clergyman, and he and his nephew 
spoke the French language tolerably 
fluent; but the third appeared to be a 
mere English scholar. They had made 
the tour through Switzerland, and descend- 
ed the Rhine as far as Cologne. And 
how did you like the countries you have 
visited, gentlemen, and the people in 
them? was my question, after having 
answered theirs. Oh ! as to the country, 



155 



it is most charming ! but, as to the peo- 

pie, they are all thieves ; they all delight 
''to cheat us Englishmen!" How so? 

Why ! here they robbed me of a shirt, 
" there of a handkerchief, and so on; in 
*' short, they are all thieves !" You have 
been unlucky, gentlemen, I replied ; I lost 
nothing but a penknife, and that by my 
own neglect. 

It is impossible to see a finer country 
than that between Aix-la-Chapelle and 
Liege ; it is romantic in the highest 
degree, extremely fertile and well-culti- 
vated, and abounds in villages and gen- 
tlemen's seats. Instead of the extensive 
and open fields of Germany, the estates 
and farms are here subdivided by green 
hedges, and, upon the whole, the country 
bears a strong resemblance to some of 
the best parts of England. The high 
roads are all paved in the middle, and 



156 



great pains have been taken to render 
them excellent ; where the acclivity of 
a hill was too steep, it has been lowered, 
and where the valley was too deep, it has 
been raised ; and the carts and waggons, 
intended for heavy burdens, have broad 
wheels. But, in a country so beautiful, 
so gifted by nature, possessing all that 
is requisite to supply the wants of man 
and to render his life agreeable, how 
afflicting and humiliating to see the 
sturdy husbandman, instead of lifting his 
eyes in gratitude to heaven, bend his 
knees before a paltry doll by the road- 
side! For, as soon as you cross the 
Rhine, you see near every village either 
a small stone crucifix, or an image of 
the Virgin Mary, literally a girl's doll 
in a glass case, before which the devout 
Catholic either crosses himself or bends 
his knees. I frequently saw some of the 



157 



lower classes perform this ceremony, but 
never any of the higher. 

At a few leagues from Aix-la-Chapelle 
we passed the Prussian frontiers, and 
entered the kingdom of the Netherlands. 
A post painted black and white, at the 
corner of a lane, on our left, pointed out 
the termination of the Prussian domi- 
nions in this quarter, and a similar post, 
on the opposite side painted red and 
white, or orange and white, I do not 
know which, denoted the entrance into 
the Low Countries. Nature still smiled 
as she had done all the morning, for the 
landscape was equally enchanting, but 
we soon perceived that the inhabitants 
were not governed by the same laws. 
Custom-house-officers, in French grey 
uniforms and cocked hats, armed with 
muskets^ were here and there lurking 
about ; and beggars, of which I had not 



158 



seen one on a road of more than 400 
miles, through Hanover and Westphalia, 
now assailed us in incredible numbers. 
I had heard a great deal of the mendi- 
cants of the Pays Bas, but what I saw 
exceeded my expectation. At an inn, 
where we changed horses, a crowd of 
boys and girls, from five to twenty years 
of age, disgustingly filthy, and some 
almost naked, besides several old cripples 
and blind people, rushed upon us from 
all quarters, and implored our charity ; 
and similar groups, though less nume- 
rous, we were sure to meet at every 
village we passed. I had been told of 
the immense number of poor people in 
the bishopric of Liege, one of the finest 
parts of the present kingdom of the 
Netherlands, and had regarded the ac- 
count as an exaggeration, but what I 
here saw confirmed it. 



159 



We were detained about an hour at 
a large Custom-house, for the purpose 
of examining our baggage. The officers 
behaved very civilly, and exacted no fee. 
The chief superintendent, in a smock- 
frock of dark blue linen, over a shirt of 
the finest hoUand, was a remarkable 
handsome man, and, I will add, almost 
the only good-looking person I met after 
crossing the Rhine. Taking the people 
in general, they are very plain, nor are 
they distinguished by any peculiar form 
or cast of countenance, like the natives 
of the northern coast of Germany. If 
you see a man or woman whose fair com- 
plexion and blue eyes indicate a trans- 
Rhenan descent, you as frequently en- 
counter others whose dark eye, black 
hair, and short slim make, points to a 
southern origin. In fact, the Nether- 
landers are a mixed race. There are, also, 



160 



several customs among them evidently 
not indigenous; such as the fashion of 
the lower classes of females in the towns, 
of almost concealing their faces in public, 
by wrapping their heads up in black silks, 
so disposed as to answer the purpose of 
hoods and shawls, and that of the men 
of the same class of wearing ear-rings. 
Even the fantastic form of the gable-end 
of some of the old houses looks some- 
what Saracenic. 

The peasantry in this part of the coun- 
try speak a peculiar dialect. There was 
some fruit exposed for sale at the Custom- 
house door, but I could not make myself 
understood to the venders, who were raw 
girls from the neighbourhood, in either 
French or Flemish, of which I was told 
they could hardly comprehend a word, we 
were therefore obliged to have recourse 
to signs, which were quite intelligible to 



161 



them. But all persons of education, in 
and near Liege, speak the French lan- 
guage fluently: indeed nothing else is 
spoken. 

After a very indifferent dinner at a 
dirty public-house, by the road-side, we 
slowly continued to advance, for the 
country was very hilly; which enabled 
me, to my great joy, to walk a conside- 
rable way under a shady hedge, among 
the finest scenery upon earth, for we were 
now gradually approaching the Meuse. 
At length, about six o'clock, we came to 
Liege. 

As I was anxious to be at Brussels on 
the following day, and had resolved to 
travel all night, I can say but little of 
this place and the country between it and 
that capital. Its situation upon the 
Meuse, and the high and romantic shores 
of this river, bear a strong resemblance 



162 



to Rochester and the Medway. But the 
extraordinary number of churches, and 
other religious buildings, with which it is 
crowded, give it an air of greater anti- 
quity and importance. It is full of life 
and bustle; and, owing to the many 
forges, iron - works, and manufactories 
established in it, the smoke thence arising 
makes it appear more like a town in Eng- 
land than one in the pure atmosphere of 
the Continent. Most of the streets de- 
scend rapidly towards the river, where 
they are generally very narrow : we were 
detained nearly half an hour in one of 
them, because a baker's cart was unload- 
ing, nor could even the foot passengers 
go by without inconvenience. There are, 
however, some parts of the town to which 
this description does not apply; and I 
saw many very handsome houses belonging 
to private persons, in streets tolerably 



163 



wide. Liege is fortified, and had a gar- 
rison. They demanded our passports 
upon entering it, which were returned at 
the opposite gate. The ascent of the 
street, through which we had to pass, 
upon our departure, was so steep, that 
our four stout horses could move only at a 
very slow pace. 

After descending the ridge on the left 
bank of the Mouse, the country gradually 
becomes level and uniform, and though 
it is still very agreeable to the sight, it no 
longer exhibits that variety of features 
which interests us between Liege and 
Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Our diligence was much lighter than 
any I had before travelled in, and hardly 
inferior to an English stage-coach. We 
moved, however, only at the rate of about 
four miles in the hour. Smoking was no 
longer allowed. 



164 



The clergyman and his party had left 
us at Liege, and their places were now 
occupied by natives of the Netherlands, 
whose conversation afforded me much 
entertainment. They opened their minds 
very freely on political subjects, and I 
had not been acquainted with them many 
minutes before I could plainly perceive 
that the present order of things in the 
world was not to their liking. A German, 
who was going to England, who had 
attached himself to me at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
and for whom I occasionally acted as 
interpreter, having, in the course of con- 
versation, mentioned Hanau, his birth- 
place, one of the Brabanders, a young, 
inoffensive, looking man, addressed him- 
self to me in French, Ah, sir," he 
said, I know Hanau very well, it 
was there I had some of my bones 
broken."—** And how came you, sir, to 



165 



" meet with so great a misfortune ?'^— 
I was in Bonaparte's army." He then 
informed me that he was the son of a 
respectable tradesman, and his father, 
being no longer able to pay for a substi- 
tute, upon his being drawn for the army, 
and the demand for men being very 
urgent, after the retreat from Moscow, 
he was forced to go himself ; he had been 
engaged in most of the actions in Silesia 
and Saxony, in the early part of 1813, 
and fought at the battles of Leipzig and 
Hanau. Having then, in consequence of 
his wounds, received his discharge, I ex- 
pected he would have returned to his 
father s roof, and remained quiet ; but 
no, so great a charm had Bonaparte, and 
a military life, produced upon him, that, 
upon that tyrant's return from Elba, he 
rejoined his legions, and was present at 
Waterloo, but succeeded better than most 



166 



of his comrades, by escaping unhurt. The 
other Brabanders having also taken a share 
in the conversation, and made some bitter 
complaints against the House of Orange, I 
expressed my surprise at it, and thought 
they had gained at least something by 
their change of rulers, in saving their 
children from the jaws of the conscription, 
and tranquilly enjoying the fruits of their 
labour under the government of a hu- 
mane king. As to our king, said one of 
them, the oldest of the party, he has 
sold us to England ; and as for our children, 
what are we to do with them, now that 
we are at peace. Such precious argu- 
ments as these were unanswerable ; I 
therefore turned to my German friend, in 
whom I took great interest, and whose 
company I lost too soon. 

The life of this man was somewhat extra- 
ordinary : he was a Jew, and had been care- 



167 



fully educated for the priesthood; but, 
when seventeen years of age, was turned 
out of his father s door for obstinately 
refusing to lead the life of a learned 
rabbi. With forty shillings in his pocket 
he found his way to England, where he 
commenced trading ; for several years he 
had wandered about in great misery from 
village to village, offering trinkets and 
other things for sale ; frequently without 
a piece of bread to eat, or a bed to sleep 
on ; but one day, when hunger and dis- 
tress had nearly overcome his habitual 
fortitude, an old lady, in a small country 
town, seeing him pass by her window, 
sent her footman after him to inquire if 
he had any rhubarb to sell ; he had none, 
but, thinking that, if once introduced to 
her, he might prevail upon her to pur- 
chase some other article, or excite her 



168 



compassion, and obtain some refreshment, 
replied in the affirmative. The stratagem 
succeeded beyond his expectation ; she 
bought a pair of spectacles, by her own 
confession, the best she had ever met 
with, and instead of paying him half a- 
crown, which he would have asked, threw 
a guinea on the table. From this hour 
success smiled upon him ; he settled at 
Bristol, married, and accumulated a for- 
tune ; and his wife having died two years 
since, he had converted his property into 
money, and placed the greater part of it 
in the English funds. He now resided 
with his children at his native place, de- 
dicating his time to their education, and 
to study. He was a man possessed of 
great natural talents, and very much 
attached to England, of which he always 
spoke with affection and gratitude ; and. 



169 



what is seldom the case among that class 
of people, well acquainted with her best 
historians and poets. 

At break of day we changed horses in 
a large, handsome square at Tirlemont ; 
and, at seven, arrived at Louvain to break- 
fast. It is an extensive, populous, place, 
and was formerly celebrated for its uni- 
versity. That part of the town, which I 
had an opportunity of viewing, was not 
remarkable for beauty ; the streets were 
narrow, and the houses low, old, and 
dirty ; but, I confess, I saw but a part 
of it. The country from hence to Brus- 
sels is open and level, and not so fertile 
as many other parts of Brabant. Fields 
of buck- wheat were not unfrequent. The 
vicinity of Louvain, which the natives 
call Lowen, was the scene of several 
severe engagements between the allies 
and French, at the beginning of the 

I 



170 



revolution. On an extensive plain, at 
some distance on the left of the road to 
Brussels, I could perceive the remains 
of works, which, I have no doubt, had 
once served the purpose of batteries. 



171 



CHAP. V. 

BRUSSELS.— EXCURSION TO WATERLOO. 

I arrived at Brussels, the capital of 
the southern division of the new kingdom 
of the Netherlands, between ten and 
eleven o'clock^ and took up my abode 
at the Hotel de Suede, Rue TEveque, 
which had been recommended to me, and 
with which I had every reason to be sa- 
tisfied. 

As soon as I had dressed myself I left 
the inn, to see as much of the city as the 
time before dinner would permit. I had 
not walked above a hundred yards when 
I was accosted, in tolerable good En- 
glish, by a little boy, rather meanly dres- 
sed. Pray, sir, do you want a cabriolet 

I 2 



172 



to Waterloo? you may have one in a 

few minutes ; the weather is fine, and 

you have plenty of time." I pretended 
not to understand him, but he was not 
to be deceived. I had hardly got rid of 
him, when another attacked me : Does 

your honour want to see the Museum ? 

I can show you the way; it is open to- 

day, and very near." 

After passing through several streets, 
I arrived in time at the Place Royale, 
to see a considerable body of Netherland 
troops assembled in marching order. 
They occupied three sides of the square^ 
and consisted of two squadrons of 
cuirassiers, one battalion of regular 
infantry, and some militia. The men 
were mostly young, but, in general,^ 
very short; even the cuirassiers ap-^ 
peared to me not sufficiently robust 
tor that species of cavalry, and their 



173 



horses were more heavy than strong. The 
clothing and equipment was, however, 
very good. The infantry went through 
the manual exercise ; but it was performed 
in a slovenly style ; and their marching in 
slow and quick time was equally discre- 
ditable. Upon the whole, the men ap- 
peared not to care how the thing was 
done; but, it may be, I was spoiled by 
what I saw among the Prussians, in 
Westphalia. 

. When the crowd had dispersed I took 
a nearer view of this square, the finest 
in Brussels, which struck me more by 
its elegance than its dimensions ; for it 
is inferior, in that respect, to Grosvenor 
and other squares in London; but the 
uniformity and beauty of the architecture 
of the houses, and their new appearance, 
being painted of a light yellowisli stone- 
colour, produce a splendid effect. The 



174 



park adjoins to it ; it is small, but pretty, 
and has several shady walks, very agree- 
able on a day like this, when the sun, 
reflected from the houses, rendered walk- 
ing in the streets excessively fatiguing. 
After viewing this part of the town, and 
the neighbourhood of the church of St. 
Gudule, I returned to my hotel to dine at 
the table d'hote. 

The dinner was very good and cheap, 
not more than two francs, or twenty- 
pence English, being charged in my 
bill, wine, of course, not included. The 
company was numerous and respectable, 
consisting of merchants, lawyers, and 
officers; there were, also, two or three 
ladies. About one-half were natives; 
the rest consisted of English, French, 
and Hanoverians. Great decorum was 
observed ; but there were no healths 
drank. The conversation dwelt upon 



175 



ordinary subjects ; and, after sitting about 
an hour over the dinner and dessert, the 
company retired. 

I, immediately, resumed my walk, and 
made a tour round the ramparts. The 
fortifications are in a very dilapidated 
condition ; they consist, chiefly, of a ditch, 
wall, and rampart, with small towers, 
at short intervals, fit only for musketry. 
The fosse is gradually filling up, and the 
walls are tumbling down. It must have 
required a large army to defend this 
town, which, I think, is at least five 
miles in circumference. The space within 
the fortifications is not, however, occu- 
pied, altogether, by houses ; for, near the 
ramparts, particularly on one side, there 
are gardens and bleaching-grounds. Two 
rows of trees afford shade for those who 
walk round the town ; and the promenade 
would be agreeable, were it kept cleaner. 



176 



A few small guns, on a bastion, consti- 
tuted all the artillery upon these once 
formidable works. There is a cluster of 
windmills upon one part of the rampart, 
and, from that spot, one has a good bird's 
eye view of the town, which appears to 
rise like an amphitheatre. Having de- 
scended nearly at the point from which 
I set out, I traversed a great part of the 
city and returned to my home. 

In the evening I went to see the play, 
which began at seven o'clock. Upon 
entering the house, which, considering 
the population of Brussels, is very small, 
I was struck by its mean and dirty ap- 
pearance. The tiers are divided into 
boxes, which are dark, and furnished with 
straw-bottomed chairs. The pit is not 
raised, but level with the ground, and 
paved with red bricks : it consists of 
two parts ; and seats in the first, near the 



177 



t)rchestre, cost a franc more than in the 
rest. The outside of the king's box, 
ornamented with the arms of the Nether- 
lands, was covered with a dirty sheet, till 
the commencement of the play. The 
house was not half filled. I was^ how- 
ever, pleased with the performance, which 
was in French ; yet, I think, in the im- 
passioned parts the action was too violent, 
and, frequently, approaching to caricature, 
at least, it appeared so to me who stood 
close to the stage. The orchestra was 
numerous and excellent ; but I could not 
reconcile myself to the fashion of beating 
time with a scroll of paper ; it looked as 
if the performers were deficient in that 
essential part of music. The prompter's 
box, in front of the stage, is also a great 
nuisance; and the man in it spoke so 
loud that I could hear every word he 
said. 

J 3 



178 



Next day, which was Saturday, the 8th 
of August, I rose as soon as it was day- 
light, and when St. Gudule's clock struck 
five, was seated in a one-horse cabriolet, 
with a Flemish peasant by my side, to 
go and see that place of sculls, the 

grave of France, the 'immortal' Wa- 
" terloo." After passing the Namur- 
gate, the road continued some distance 
between country-houses of no very re- 
spectable appearance, and some gardens, 
till we came to a large pond, on our 
left, bordered, on the side opposite to 
the road, with small white cottages, 
which, being surrounded by a cluster of 
trees, looked rather prettily. Here the 
ground began to rise, though but gently ; 
and, when nearly two miles from Brussels, 
we came to some straggling trees, which 
proved to be the beginning of the forest 
of Soigne. There was a public-house 



179 



on our right, and I told my conductor, 
in his native tongue, for he knew but 
little French, to stop and take a dram ; 
joy sparkled in his eyes at receiving this 
welcome order. Ah, sir !" he said^ 
how it does one's heart good to hear 
an Englishman talk Flemish which 
exclamation made me heartily laugh. 
We soon entered the forest, which is said 
to extend nine miles in one direction, and 
seven and a half in another ; but, whe- 
ther it was owing to the regularity of the 
road, or to the circumstance of the trees 
being planted and trimmed so as to be- 
come very tall and slender, it did not 
strike me with the gloom and wildness of 
the woods of Germany. The road, as 
it is at present, was made in 1698. It 
is broad and paved in the middle. Where 
the ground was too elevated, it has been 
cut through, and the loose earth thus 



180 



acquired, employed in forming banks, 
or dykes, from ten to twenty feet high, 
over which the road passes ; yet, excel- 
lent as I thought it, a great number of 
men were labouring hard in enlarging it. 
Here and there a good deal of beech- 
wood was piled up for the supply of 
Brussels ; and we met vast numbers of 
waggons from Charleroi with coals, drawn, 
generally, by four powerful horses, the 
leather harness of which was gaily orna- 
mented with small brass nails. 

It was principally near those elevated 
parts of the road, that the most frightful 
scenes of confusion took place, during the 
retreat of Wellington's army from Quatre 
Bras, when those, in charge of the baggage, 
thought every thing lost, and hurried on 
to Brussels. My peasant drove one of the 
baggage-waggons that day, and could not 
describe, without shuddering, what he 



181 



had witnessed at a spot, which he pointed 
out, where the road rises several yards 
over a dell ; horses, carts, and men, had 
been precipitated into the hollow below, 
by those pressing behind. 

We had proceeded several miles, when 
suddenly, and qnite unexpected, a turn 
in the road gave me a full view of Water- 
loo church, which is a much more striking 
and interesting object, as a building, than 
I had imagined. The principal part is 
round, constructed of red bricks, and 
surmounted with a spacious dome. The 
causeway now inclined to the left, and 
we were at once in the heart of this :;ele- 
brated village, for it can hardly be called 
a town. 

Though Waterloo cannot boast of 
one good-looking house, still there is 
something neat and pleasant about the 



182 



place. It is situated rather high and 
upon the very skirt of the forest, and the 
cottages are mostly neat and generally 
white- washed. 

I was an early visitor at the Jean de 
Nivelle, where a lively French girl, with- 
out shoes or stockings on her feet, usher- 
ed me into a tolerable good room, facing 
the church ; and, in less than a quarter of 
an hour, a comfortable breakfast was 
placed before me. I was not many minutes 
in taking two or three cups of excel- 
lent coffee, and soon re-ascended my ca- 
briolet, and trotted on to the village of 
Mount St. John, which is but a short 
distance from Waterloo. Koster, who 
acted as Bonaparte's guide on the 
18th of June, 1815, dressed in a blue 
smock-frock, such as is worn by the 
country people in Flanders, stood at the 



183 



door of his cottage, looking out for cus^ 
tomers, and, without loss of time, accom- 
panied me to the field of battle. 

The ground had been gradually rising 
from the time we left Waterloo, and 
now formed the Mount St. John, upon a 
part of which the village of that name is 
built. It is hardly, however, elevated 
sufficiently to deserve the name of hill. On 
the wall of a large white-washed farm- 
house, or rather barn, on our right, was 
written in large characters : Centre of 
the position of the Allied Army." And a 
little farther on, close by the road, on the 
left, stands a windmill, near which some 
of the enemy's cannon-balls fell. 

The village is but small; and, after we 
were clear of the houses, we soon came 
to the ground on which the allied army 
was placed, and to the spot, occupied by 
the Duke of Wellington, during a great 



184 



part of the battle. The high road from 
Mount St. John to Genappe and Charleroi, 
passes directly through the English aaad 
French positions, both of which are upon 
rising ground, about one mile and a half 
asunder. To render the road easier for 
carriages, the ascent, on both sides, is cut 
through, and the banks, thus formed, may 
be about a dozen feet high. Upon the 
edge of this hollow way, on the right, in 
front of the village of Mount St. John, 
stands a middle-sized tree, and near it, 
the duke and his staff were generally seen 
throughout the day. From this spot, 
which is more elevated than th^ site of 
the village, the positions of the two 
armies are very easily traced ; for the 
whole intermediate space has not a bush, 
or a house, to interrupt the view ; it is all 
arable land without hedge or fence, ex- 
cept on the left, where a bank, with a few 



185 



bushes and stumps, afforded some pro- 
tection to the infantry of the left wing. 
In front of this wing, in the low ground, 
between the two armies, many of the 
cavalry engagements took place; and, there. 
General Ponsonby was killed. The cen- 
tre extended from the right of the cause- 
way about a mile over the high ground; 
and the right wing fell back considerably, 
so as to form an angle where it joined the 
centre ; in front of this angle is the farm 
of Hougomont; and between this farm, 
and the British line, runs the road from 
Mount St. John to Nivelle, a great part 
of which is likewise cut through the 
ground. 

Having thus formed a clear notion of 
the field of battle we went on, and after 
walking a few paces, came to Colonel 
Gordon's monument. It is an obelisk of 
slate- coloured stone, and placed on the 



186 



spot where that young officer was mortally 
wounded. On the left, in the road below, 
some masons were at work in laying the 
foundation for a monument in honor of 
the Hanoverians, who, hereabout, fell 
thickly, in sustaining some of the most 
desperate attacks. A little way farther 
down the causeway, on the right side, 
stands the farm of La Haye Sainte. We 
entered the garden through a gap in the 
hedge. Several hundred men were buried 
in it, and the place was conspicuous from 
its rising above the other parts of the 
garden. Vegetables were growing lux- 
uriantly on the graves. Through the 
garden-door we came into the farm-yard, 
which is surrounded on all , sides by a 
wall, except the space occupied by a large 
wooden gate. 

This was the scene of the heroic firm- 
ness and devotion of three companies of 



187 



the second battalion of light-infantry of 
the King's German Legion ; — all of whom 
fell ! The wooden gate, which remains 
j in the state it was in immediately after 
the battle, is perforated with thousands 
of musket-balls, yet, as long as the men 
had powder and shot, they preserved the 
place, but, when that was gone, and 
could not be supplied, the enemy made a 
hole in the wall of a shed, large enough 
to admit a man ; the spot is very con- 
spicuous, though now repaired ; irresist- 
ible numbers thus forced their way in, 
and the contest with bayonets soon ter- 
minated. The names of the officers, who 
fell at the head of this detachment, are 
commemorated on a marble slab, fixed in 
the wall next to the road. The fact, that 
this farm, which is not above a furlong 
from the main position of the allied army, 
could not be succoured with men and 



188 



ammunition, proves the closeness of the 
action ; and there can be no foundation 
for the story which I have seen in print, 
that the principal officer lost his presence 
of mind, and forgot to make a hole in the 
wall facing the allied army, and thus re- 
cruit his exhausted strength, for the gar- 
den-door, through which I entered into 
the farm-yard, is in the very direction in 
which the author of that calumnious tale 
would have him make an aperture. The 
farm-house itself, which is a stone build- 
ing, received but little damage; some 
cannon-balls went through the slated roof, 
and one through a room on the ground- 
floor, breaking a stone window-frame ; 
but that was ^11 the harm it met with. 

After leaving the farm of La Haye 
Sainte, we went to the opposite bank of 
the road, where a field had just been 
ploughed, and I spent a few minutes^ 



189 



without success, in searching for some 
relic of the battle, to take to England ; 
but, in crossing a field, from which the 
corn had recently been removed, on our 
way to the public- house, called La Belle 
Alliance, Koster, who was close to my 
side, and also looking about on the 
ground, said, here is something which 
looks like a grape-shot ; it proved to be 
one, and I had some difficulty in detach- 
ing it from the soil. It was probably an 
English shot, for we found it in the very 
heart of the French position, and not 
many yards from the spot which Napoleon 
occupied towards the close of the engage- 
ment. I shall preserve it all my life. I, 
here, saw the hollow part of the high 
road, from which one of the columns of 
the French guards deployed in the 
enemy's last attempt to break through 
the allied army, and in which Bonaparte 



190 



halted to see the result. The other 
column of the guards, Koster asserted, 
went at once over the high ground on the 
left of the first column, and it was in 
this body of men, chiefly, that the English 
artillery, of the right wing, caused such 
dreadful havoc. 

Hereabout, as well as on the left of 
the Genappe road and towards Hougomont, 
the burying places were easily discovered, 
not, indeed, by any rising in the ground, 
for the plough has made every thing 
smooth, but by the colour of the oats 
which grew upon the field, which were 
ripe every where but on the graves ; 
there they were still as green as grass. 
Where the corn had been carried, the 
places of interment were easily distin- 
guished by the rankness of the soil, 
which had produced great quantities of 
weeds. 



191 



We now came to the public-house of 
La Belle Alliance, about the centre of the 
French lines. It stands on the left of 
the road to Genappe, and the side facing 
Mount St. John had been considerably 
damaged by Wellington's artillery. I 
counted eight cannon-balls fixed in the 
places, where others went through on the 
18th of June. The young woman who 
brought us some wine and cakes was 
one of the inmates on that eventful oc- 
casion, and had fled, with the rest of the 
family, into the woods. This house was 
crowded, on the day of the battle, from top 
to bottom, with wounded French officers. 

Koster confirmed to me the accuracy 
of the account of his conversation with 
Bonaparte, when acting as his guide, as 
published in PauVs Letters to his Kins- 
folks ; that he told him not to be afraid 
of the whistling of the balls, adding, thai 



192 



those which proved fatal could not be 
heard by the persons whom they hit ; 
that Bonaparte neither eat nor drank 
during the whole day and subseq^uent 
night ; that he was certainly mistaken iii 
the arrival of the Prussians, and that 
when the fact was ascertained, he several 
times shrugged up his shoulders, and 
displayed evident marks of uneasiness ; and 
that, in his conversations with him, he 
always spoke kindly to him. 

Koster appears to be an honest man, 
who, I am willing to believe, relates 
faithfully what he has himself heard 
and seen ; but some of his data are 
evidently erroneous ; thus he would have 
it that every English regiment of horse, 
at Waterloo, was 900 men strong ; though 
it is well known that half that number 
was nearer the mark. 

Having rested and refreshed ourselves. 



193 



we returned towards the right of the 
British position and came to Goumont, 
now called Hoagomont. We entered a 
field of a few acres in size, surrounded 
by a hedge, in advance of , the farm, 
towards La Belle Alliance. This hedge 
was lined with light troops at the begin- 
ning of the action ; and many of the 
trees had marks of shot upon them, par- 
ticularly one, a beech-tree, on which those 
marks were countless. We went along 
this hedge, which is planted very closely, 
and in which the trees are from three to 
nine inches in diameter, and came to 
another enclosure, in which they were 
cutting oats. It was formerly the site of a 
small wood. Koster said, the trees had 
been grubbed up on account of the 
damage they received during the battle ; 
but I cannot give credit to this story. 
Behind these enclosures, and immediately 

K 



194 



in front of the wall, is an orchard, to 
which the English guards retreated, when 
the former could no longer be maintained ; 
but this orchard they were also forced to 
yield ; and it was in the attempt to de- 
fend those positions that they lost so many 
men ; for, when once confined within the 
walls, they sacrificed scarcely any thing. 

After minutely examining this part of 
the field of battle, we entered a gate, 
facing what was formerly the wood, and 
now had before us the extensive ruins of 
this once peaceful retreat from the bustle 
of the capital. Ruins of habitations are 
melancholy objects at all times ; they 
become sacred when the result of such 
glorious deeds as were here performed; 
deeds, which greatly contributed to the 
success of a day ; which, in its conse- 
quences, will prove so beneficial to a 
great portion of mankind. 



195 



An out-building, now the dwelling-place 
of a peasant and his family, and a little 
chapel, remain entire. In the latter, the 
fire had scorched the feet of the wooden 
image of our Saviour, fixed over the door 
by which we entered, but had extended no 
farther ; which my honest guide was rather 
inclined to regard as something miracu- 
lous. A painting of Christ, as large as life, 
opposite the door, is also preserved. As to 
the walls they are covered with thousands 
of names, for almost every one who goes 
to Hougomont leaves this memorial of his 
visit behind. 

As Bonaparte so obstinately persisted 
in his attempts to take this place, it is 
surprising that he never caused any heavy 
artillery to be pointed against it, after 
finding that the troops, who defended it, 
were protected by a brick-wall. Six eigh- 
teen-pounders would have battered the 

K 2 



196 



whole down in half an hour, for it is hardly 
two feet thick. The garden lies neglect- 
ed ; grass covers the spacious gravel- 
walks ; and the pear and apple trees were 
growing in wild luxuriance. Next to the 
English lines there is a shrubbery at the 
bottom of the garden, and here an 
English cannon-ball penetrated the stem 
of a tree near its roots. The man who 
pointed the gun made a strange mistake ; 
or, it may be, the English ball encoun- 
tered a French one in its passage, and 
was thus turned out of its destined 
course. 

Having thus fully gratified my curiosity, 
we returned to Mount St. John, where 
many inquiries had been making after 
Koster; and, at two o'clock, I was again 
at Brussels. 

I employed the whole afternoon, and a 
portion of the following morning, in view- 



197 



ing such parts of the town as I had not 
yet seen. I likewise took a walk in the 
Allee Verte, by the side of the canal, of 
which so much is said. It is above a mile 
long, but far inferior to the beautiful 
alley of lime-trees from Hanover to Her- 
renhausen ; and the vicinity, too, struck 
me by its meanness and poverty. 

There certainly are several public build- 
ings and places in Brussels which deserve 
attention ; but the favorable impression 
which this city made upon me was 
owing more to the great number of 
modern houses, and the neatness of their 
outside, than to the beauty or grandeur 
of any collective number of them. The 
churches did not interest me by their ar- 
chitecture; that of St. Gudule, the largest 
and oldest, is but a heavy building. The 
lofty and elegant tower of St. Michers, 



198 



upon the Hotel de Ville, was the only 
specimen of Gothic architecture which 
strongly riveted my attention ; and I 
could not help admiring the portico of 
the new church of Coudenberg, in the 
Place Royale. But, upon the whole, 
Brussels has a modern and handsome 
appearance ; for, in proportion to the 
number of houses it contains, there are 
but few with the old Gothic gable-end, so 
common in the other towns of Brabant 
and Flanders. Brussels is, in a great 
measure, indebted for this advantage to 
Marshal Villeroy, who bombarded it in 
1695, and destroyed 4000 houses. 

During the sway of Bonaparte, it lost 
much of its former importance, and the 
population rapidly decreased ; but being, 
at present, through some part of the 
year, the residence of the king and 



199 



royal family, it is rapidly recovering, 
and the inhabitants are now estimated at 
90,000. 

I am not surprised that Brussels should 
have been selected by so many English 
families for their temporary residence ; 
provisions and lodgings are cheap and 
good, and the expense of educating a 
family is likewise moderate. The climate 
is very salubrious ; the police excellent; 
and though the Brabanders do not like 
the English, yet, in spite of this antipathy, 
which, in a great measure, is owing to 
temporary causes and will wear off, a 
well-bred Englishman or woman is sure 
to be treated with civility and attention. 
It has, moreover, the great advantage of 
being near to England. Brussels, how- 
ever, is not a place for the mere lounger ; 
there are but few places of amusement, 



200 



nor do the public walks, in or near it, pos- 
sess any thing greatly attractive. In 
short, it is well adapted for genteel 
people whose income is small, or those who 
wish to nurse their finances. 



201 



CHAP. VI. 

JIETURN TO ENGLAND. 

I left Brussels, for Ghent, atone o'clock, 
on Sunday, the 9th of August. We 
passed by a great number of hop-grounds, 
the first I had seen on the Continent. 
The soil appeared to be every where 
fertile, and highly cultivated, and though 
the landscape possessed nothing bold or 
striking, still it was rural, pleasing, and 
interesting. The white-washed cottage, 
in the midst of a thriving orchard, the 
abode of a healthy-looking and contented 
peasantry, can never fail to excite sensa- 
tions of pleasure. Not only the /country, 
but, likewise, its inhabitants, and their 
language, differ from what I had observed 

K 3 



202 



towards Liege and in Brabant ; they are 
Dutch, and so is the climate, for one 
breathes no longer the pure and dry air 
of the Continent. 

It gave me great satisfaction to learn, 
not only in this part of the Netherlands, 
but, also, in other districts, that the 
farmer, and all those who derive their 
livelihood immediately from agriculture, 
do not partake of the ill-humour which 
has infected so many of the middling 
classes. All are unanimous in saying that 
they are contented with their situation ; 
and some of the disajSected, who fell in 
my way, made it a charge against their 
present rulers, that the landholder became 
opulent, while the townspeople were re- 
duced to beggary. This attention to the 
cultivators of the soil proves the wisdom 
of the government. 

At Ghent, where we arrived between 



203 



eight and nine o'clock in the evening, two 
gentlemen, while at supper, began to 
argue, rather warmly, about the policy 
best suited to this new kingdom. One, 
who was a citizen of Ghent, was willing 
to admit, that, in a fertile country, like 
the Netherlands, agriculture deserved en- 
couragement, but not more than the loom ; 
and being, probably, himself a manufac- 
turer, could not conceal his jealousy of 
England ; but his good breeding would 
not suffer him to use terms offensive to 
me. Our drawbacks on printed cottons, 
and other articles, he considered as a 
bounty expressly paid to ruin the manu- 
facturing establishments of the Continent. 
This was his creed, to which he pertina- 
ciously adhered, in spite of the solid ai'- 
guments of his adversary, who took the 
part of England, though himself a mer- 
chant of Elberfelt. 



204 



Being very tired, I went to bed early ; 
but, about one o'clock, was awoke by the 
boisterous mirth of three or four Dutch 
girls, whose bed-room was close to 
mine ; they had been to the play, and, 
I believe, now amused themselves with 
acting some favourite part over again ; 
for these Catholics, after having prostrated 
and crossed themselves before the image 
of their Virgin, will run straight to the 
playhouses, which are open on Sundays, 
and enjoy any comedy or farce that hap- 
pens to be performed. Nothing could be 
less phlegmatic than these young ladies, 
and they would have laughed and chatter- 
ed till broad daylight, if not hushed by 
the arrival of their mamma. Sleep, how- 
ever, was thus banished from my eyes, 
and the only pleasure I had, for hours, 
was listening to the chimes of the neigh- 
bouring churches, of which the effect, 



205 



in the dead of the night, is very beau- 
tiful. 

I rose early, and had a glimpse of the 
magnificent Cathedral, and the adjoining 
streets of this populous and extensive 
town, celebrated for being the birth- 
place of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. 
That part of Ghent which I had time to 
see has an antique appearance, and con- 
trasts greatly with the gay outside of 
Brussels. Upon my return to the inn, I 
was introduced, at breakfast, to the Dutch 
family, whose fair daughters had disturbed 
my rest; but it was impossible to be angry, 
for two of the young ladies were remark- 
ably pretty. 

At nine o'clock I was seated on the 
deck of a handsome barge, going to 
Bruges. No mode of travelling can be 
more pleasant, particularly on a hot day. 
One part of the vessel, near the stern, is 



206 



raised, and shaded by a tasteful awning. 
It is furnished with covered seats, which 
will accommodate about thirty persons. 
The vessel Avas drawn by four horses, and 
we glided along the smooth surface of the 
water at the rate of three miles and a half 
the hour. There is no lock, or impedi- 
ment of any kind, though the canal ex- 
tends twenty- four miles. Nothing is seen, 
on both banks, but country-houses, gar- 
dens, and meadows. 

Shortly after our departure, a waiter 
came on deck, to take orders for dinner, 
and, at one o'clock, sixteen hungry guests 
sat down, in a handsome cabin, to a 
sumptuous repast, consisting of a great 
variety of dishes, of several sorts of fish 
and poultry, and even partridges, as yet 
a rarity ; and this was succeeded by a 
dessert, equally choice. The charge, in- 
cluding a good bottle of red wine, the 



207 



passage-money, waiters, &c. was but 
eight francs and a half, equal to about 
seven shillings. 

The company, soon after, retired on 
deck, to enjoy the fine afternoon, except 
a party of six of John Bull's off'spring, 
who had made a tour, for pleasure, through 
Holland and Flanders, though not one of 
them understood a word of Dutch or 
French. They had attracted my atten- 
tion early in the morning, by refusing to 
give a trifle to a poor man, who voluntarily 
assisted in removing their eff'ects on-board. 
This elegant party remained below, and 
drank champaign, at seven francs a bottle, 
till nearly intoxicated. When, at length, 
they had staggered on deck, two or three 
took a nap, though surrounded by ladies 
and respectable persons. Another, after 
a little yawning, opened a book of travels, 
and, having read a line or two, suddenly 



208 



exclaimed, What ! sheep ! Look here. 
Jack, this man says the country abounds 
in cattle and sheep. It is all false ; I 
will be hanged if ever I saw a sheep 
since we left England." Bravo ! The 
Flemish farmers not having drawn up their 
sheep upon the banks of the Ghent canal, 
ergo, Flanders contains no sheep ! I fear 
these worthy gentlemen have profited but 
little by their travels ; they would have 
acted wisely if they had stayed at home, 
and attended to their pigs and poultry. 
They were not Londoners. It is men of 
this stamp that make an unfavorable im- 
pression upon the people of the Continent, 
and rob a well-bred Englishman, when 
abroad, of a share of that respect to 
which he is so justly entitled. 

It was four o'clock when we arrived 
at Bruges, where many persons were 
assembled, to witness the approach 



209 



of the barge. The luggage of those 
who wished to proceed to Ostend that 
day was immediately collected, and 
conveyed to the canal, at the opposite 
part of the town, where a passage- 
boat was waiting. This vessel, much in- 
ferior, in size and accommodation, to the 
one we had just quitted, was supplied 
with sails, which, with the assistance of 
two horses, brought us to Ostend in three 
hours, a distance of twelve miles, and at 
the expense of one franc. 

The country was everywhere flat and 
uninteresting, and offered nothing remark- 
able, except the magnificent canal on 
which we were moving. Here and there 
one sees a solitary farm-house, upon some 
mount, or bank of earth ; and a consider- 
able tract of land was pointed out to me, 
by a farmer, of the neighbourhood, which, 
he said, was generally under water during 



210 



the winter-season. What a spot to live 
in! 

The sun had set, when our farther pro- 
gress was stopped by the sluices. A great 
number of persons crowded round us, re- 
commending their hotels, or requesting 
to carry our baggage, but an armed Cus- 
tom-House officer drove every stranger 
from the deck, and preserved order. 

After walking a good mile, we were 
lodged at an inn, kept by an Englishman. 
It was my anxious wish to return to 
England as soon as possible, and I heard, 
therefore, with regret, that no vessel 
would sail till the following evening. 

In the morning I had the pleasure 
of bathing in the sea, near the light- 
house. The water is pure, but the 
place itself very inconvenient, and totally 
unfit for ladies or invalids. Only two 
machines are kept. My forenoon was 



211 



employed in viewing this fortified sea- 
port, and taking a long walk upon the 
sands towards Dunkirk, the finest I have 
ever seen, for not a rock or stone im- 
peded my steps. 

The streets of Ostend are wide and 
straight ; and the houses mostly in the 
Dutch style, with high gable-tops ; but 
the place looks poor and deserted. The 
best, and largest, buildings are near the 
harbours, which are capacious, but only 
fit for vessels of small burden. The for- 
tifications are repairing ; but there was no 
garrison. 

We sat down to a complete English 
dinner, and the glorious sight of a goose 
dressed with sage and onions, and the 
foaming tankard of good brown stout, 
excited feelings of the highest exultation 
in some of the company. The different 
opinions of the tourists, some of whom 



212 



had climbed the Alps of Savoy and 
Switzerland, while others had waded 
through the fens and bogs of Holland, 
were highly diverting. We appeared 
like sages, assembled in council, to pass 
judgment on the Continent. But no one 
amused me so much as a gouty old gen- 
tleman, who, in his younger days, had 
visited the greater part of Europe. Ac- 
cording to him, there was nothing but 
wretchedness, barbarism, and inhospita- 
lity, beyond the shores of Great Britain, 
except in Italy; for the recollection of 
her music, her dancing girls, and mac- 
caroni, even now seemed to warm his 
heart. Yet this gentleman was a man of 
learning, and a Fellow of the Royal 
Society. The final, and unanimous, sen- 
tence was, that England is the best 
country upon earth for an Englishman 
to live in. 



213 



Soon after coming to this happy con- 
clusion, the master of the Fox Packet 
made his bow, and informed us that his 
vessel was ready, and the tide ebbing 
fast. Most of us, therefore, proceeded 
to the harbour, and, at nine o'clock, we 
were under y> eigh, with a fine breeze 
from the S.E. The moon kindly accom- 
panied us — the North Foreland lights 
became visible when those of Ostend had 
died away — the sun rose in great majesty 
— the shores of Albion once more ap- 
peared before my longing eyes — first like 
a gray cloud on the distant horizon, then, 
with the addition of a white belt, grow- 
ing broader, and more distinct, every 
moment, and, at length, when the clock 
struck six, I was safe on Margate-Pier. 



THE END. 



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